I 



THE ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 



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THE 

ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 



BY 

IRA B. CROSS, Ph.D. 



" Some people study all their lives, and at their 
death they have learned everything except to 
think." Dombegub. 



Wefa fgotfe 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1912 

All rights reserved 



4> 



COPTEIGHT, 1912, 

By THE MAOMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1912. 



NortocoU ipress 

J. S. Cushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



V 



\.o D 



-&CLA305736 



TO MY WIFE 



PREFACE 

The ordinary volume on socialism is either 
biased in its presentation of the subject or it 
covers too small a portion of the field by being 
an historical sketch, a bit of propaganda literature, 
or merely a discussion of its theoretical founda- 
tion. In the following pages I have endeavored 
to avoid these objectionable features, in the hope 
that the volume may serve as a handbook to the 
busy reader or as a textbook for the classroom. 
My object has been to cover the field usually dis- 
cussed and to present the subject in such a manner 
that the reader or instructor may be free to form 
and express his own opinions and to elaborate 
or to curtail any part of the discussion that he 
may desire. 

An effort has been made to state fairly and 
accurately both sides of the issues involved, and 
although I realize the practical impossibility of 
attaining this ideal, I cherish the hope that the 
following statement may prove satisfactory to 
the advocates as well as to the opponents of this 
widely discussed and much misunderstood subject. 



Viii PREFACE 

In the text only American and English publi- 
cations have been cited. This has been deemed 
advisable because the ordinary reader does not 
possess a reading knowledge of Italian, French, 
or German. With but a few exceptions, maga- 
zine articles and pamphlets have also been omitted 
from the list of references, because the former are 
without number and the latter are very difficult 
to obtain. Asterisks (*) have been used to point 
out the references especially recommended. 

It is a pleasure to acknowledge my indebted- 
ness to my colleagues, Professors Alvin S. John- 
son, Harry A. Millis, and Burt Estes Howard, all 
of whom have given much kindly criticism and 
many helpful suggestions in the preparation of 

this small volume. 

IRA B. CROSS. 
Stanford University, 
November, 1911. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Introduction 1 

II. The Socialist Indictment of Capitalism 11 

III. Socialism, its Definition and Differen- 

tiation from Other Schemes for 

Social Betterment 14 

IV. Classification of the Different Kinds 

of Socialists 35 

V. The Inevitability of Socialism . . 90 
VI. Methods of Obtaining Collective Own- 
ership 101 

VII. Outlines of a Possible Socialist State . 106 
VIII. Supplementary Chapter. Socialism and 

Trade-Unionism 121 

IX. Conclusion 126 

Bibliography 129 

Index • • 151 



ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION 

Few movements in the world's history have 
attracted the attention or have aroused such bit- 
ter opposition as has Marxian or scientific social- 
ism. Various reform measures, popularly called 
" socialistic," and numerous Utopian schemes for 
social betterment have always been mildly op- 
posed, but it has been against Marxian socialism 
that the most strenuous and unending battle has 
been waged. And like most movements whose 
followers have been grievously persecuted, it has 
grown marvellously strong and active, until at 
the present time it is undoubtedly one of the 
most widely discussed subjects before the public. 

Marxian or scientific socialism is, as Professor 
Veblen says, "the socialism that inspires hopes 



2 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

and fears to-day. ... No one is seriously appre- 
hensive of any other so-called socialistic move- 
ment." 1 Its position of prominence has been 
attained within a comparatively short time. The 
roots of its teachings are found in earlier writings, 
but as a fairly well defined movement it may be 
said to date from the publication of the " Com- 
munist Manifesto " in 1848. This small pamphlet, 
a manifesto of a revolutionary organization, " The 
Communist League," was jointly written by Karl 
Marx and Friedrich Engels. It contains in brief 
and concise form much that was later developed 
through the writings and speeches of these two 
German radicals into those principles which to-day 
form the foundation of the socialist movement 
throughout the world. The words "socialism" 
and "socialist" are also of comparatively late 
origin, no trace of their use having been found 
prior to 1833. 2 At first the term " socialist " was 
applied on the one hand to "the adherents of 
various Utopian systems — Owenites in England, 
and Fourierists in France ; and on the other hand, 
[to] the most multifarious social quacks, who, by 
all manners of tinkering, professed to redress, 
without any danger to capital and profit, all sorts 

1 Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. xxi., p. 229. 

2 International Socialist Beview, vol. vi., p. 45. 



INTRODUCTION 3 

of social grievances, — in both cases men outside 
the working class movement, and looking rather 
to the 'educated' classes for support." 3 That 
portion of the working class which had become 
convinced of the insufficiency of such Utopian and 
variegated reform measures, and which had " pro- 
claimed the necessity of a total social change, that 
portion then called itself 'Communist.'" Thus 
socialism was a middle-class movement; com- 
munism was a working-class movement. Social- 
ism was " respectable " ; communism was not. 4 A 
reversal in the meaning and application of these 
terms has taken place in later years, so that to-day 
the advocates of Utopian colony or communistic 
experiments are called "communists," while the 
followers of Marx and Engels, the former com- 
munists, are now called "socialists." Failure to 
recognize this change accounts for certain errors 
on the part of some of the critics of modern 
socialism. 

The socialist movement, young though it is, 
has spread very rapidly, until at the present time 
there is scarcely any part of the globe free from 
its enthusiastic, self-sacrificing, and proselyting 
members. It recognizes no lines of nationality, 

8 Engels, Preface to the Communist Manifesto, p. 7. 
* Ibid. 



4 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

color, race, or creed. The latest available statis- 
tics show that the voting strength of the social- 
ists throughout the world is about as follows : 5 — 

Germany 3,250,000 52 

France 1,300,000 77 

Austria 1,000,000 87 

United States 600,000 9 6 

Russia 600,000 60 7 

England 500,000 40 

Belgium 500,000 42 

Italy 339,000 44 

Finland 337,000 86 

Greece — 20 

Switzerland 100,000 7 

Denmark 99,000 28 

Norway 90,000 11 

Holland 82,000 7 

Sweden 75,000 36 

Spain 40,000 1 

Servia 30,000 1 

Argentina 5,000 1 

Bulgaria 3,000 — 

Australian Commonwealth . — 62 

South Africa Union ... — 4 

5 HazelVs Annual, 1911. Pp. 399-400. 

6 HazelVs Annual places the number of socialist parliamen- 
tary representatives in the United States at nine. This is in- 
correct. At the close of 1910 there were seventeen socialists in 
state legislatures and one socialist congressman. 

7 1906 returns. 



INTRODUCTION 5 

In the United States it is only within the last 
decade that the socialist movement has attained a 
position of prominence. During the first half of 
the nineteenth century the existence of cheap 
land, political liberty, and freedom of conscience 
caused this country to be used as an experimental 
ground by the followers of Owen, Cabet, Fourier, 
and other Utopians. Numerous colonies were 
established and many members were enlisted, but 
almost without exception the outcome proved to 
be failure of the most dismal and discouraging 
sort. 

It was not until 1876 that any serious attempt 
was made in the United States to form a political 
party for the purpose of propagating the princi- 
ples of socialism. During the next twenty-five 
years this organization, which later became the 
Socialist Labor Party, received slight support at 
the hands of the voters. The causes which con- 
tributed to its failure may be summarized as hav- 
ing been the dominance of a strongly individual- 
istic point of view among the American people ; 
the existence of the freedom of the press, of 
assembly and of speech, the right of trial by jury 
and of equal manhood suffrage, — all of which 
removed many of those sources of oppression 
which abroad had served to unite the working- 



6 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

class under the banner of socialism ; the presence 
of large areas of cheap and free land ; the exist- 
ence of a large land-owning farming class essen- 
tially conservative in its point of view ; the absence 
of fixed class lines ; a uniformly high rate of 
wages, and a high standard of living ; the an- 
tagonistic attitude of the Socialist Labor Party 
towards " pure and simple " trade-unionism ; and 
the " foreign " character of the movement, led as 
it was almost entirely by German immigrants. 

With the progress of industry and the growth 
of population have come changed conditions which 
have made for an increase in the socialist follow- 
ing. Free and cheap lands of satisfactory quality, 
which previously served as a sort of safety valve 
for the discontent of the masses, no longer exist. 
Coupled with this is a very noticeable increase of 
tenancy in both city and country. Strikes, lock- 
outs, boycotts, the "union busting" activities of 
the capitalists, the seeming partiality shown the 
latter class by every branch of the government, 
the difficulty which the unions have had in obtain- 
ing labor laws and factory legislation and in hav- 
ing them upheld by state and federal courts, all of 
these things, and more, have added to the unrest 
of the working-class and have made its members 
more willing than ever before to listen to the 



INTRODUCTION 7 

arguments of the socialists, who have never neg- 
lected an opportunity of driving home the appli- 
cation of their teachings to current problems. 
Another matter which must not be overlooked is 
the changed attitude of the socialists towards 
trade-unionism. Previously it was one of oppo- 
sition; to-day it is, for the most part, one of ap- 
proval. Many of the most prominent socialists 
are also the leaders of the trade-unionists. The 
dissatisfaction of the voters with the Republican 
and Democratic parties has caused many to sever 
their connections with those political organiza- 
tions and to ally themselves with the socialists as 
a method of protest. The publication by the 
popular magazines of articles dealing with the 
subject of socialism has not only attracted the at- 
tention of the public to the growing importance 
of the issue, but it has also led many to accept its 
principles and engage in their propagation. 

In 1908 the Socialist Party of the United States 
polled about 500,000 votes. Since that time its 
following has increased, so that in 1911 there 
were no less than 435 socialist office-holders in 
the United States, coming from 33 states and 
representing about 160 municipalities and elec- 
tion districts. Professor R. F. Hoxie of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago, writing under the title of 



8 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

"The Rising Tide of Socialism," states that in 
point of function these office-holders include "1 
congressman, 1 state senator, 16 state representa- 
tives, 28 mayors, village presidents and township 
chairmen, 3 city commissioners, and 167 aldermen, 
councillors, and village and township trustees. 
Sixty-one others occupy important executive, leg- 
islative, and departmental positions, so that con- 
siderably more than one-half may be said to hold 
major legislative or municipal positions. Of those 
remaining, it is noteworthy that 15 are assessors, 
62 are school officials, and 65 are connected with 
the work of justice and police." 8 

REFERENCES 

i. General References to the History of Socialism. 

* Ely. French and German Socialism. 

* Guthrie. Socialism before the French Revolution. 

* Hunter. Socialists at Work. 

* Kirkup. History of Socialism. 

Macdonald. The Socialist Movement. Chs. 10-11. 

* Skelton. Socialism. Ch. 9. 

Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 

224-272. 
Woolsey. Communism and Socialism. 

2. Australia. 

Clark. The Labor Movement in Australasia. 
Hirsch. Democracy versus Socialism. 

* Hunter. Socialists at Work. Pp. 354-356. 

8 Journal of Political Economy, vol. xix., pp. 610-611. 



INTRODUCTION 9 

Le Rossignol and Stewart. State Socialism in New 

Zealand. 
Reeves. State Experiments in Australia and New 

Zealand. 
St. Ledger. Australian Socialism. 
Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 

253-256. 

* Stoddart. The New Socialism. Supplementary chap- 

ter on " Notes on Australian Socialism." 

, England. 

* Anonymous. The Case Against Socialism. Ch. 2. 
Barker. British Socialism. Chs. 33-34. 
Forster. English Socialism of To-day. 

* Hunter. Socialists at Work. Ch. 4. 

Laveleye. Socialism of To-day. Appendix on " So- 
cialism in England," by G. H. Orpen. 

Macdonald. The Socialist Movement. Pp. 229-234. 

Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 
144-155, 240-252. 

Villiers. The Socialist Movement in England. 

Webb. Socialism in England. 

Woods. English Social Movements. Pp. 38-78. 

. France. 

* Ely. French and German Socialism. Chs. 1-8. 

Socialism and Social Reform. Appendix X. 
Ensor. Modern Socialism. Chs. 7, 25, 28. 

* Hunter. Socialists at Work. Ch. 3. 
Macdonald. The Socialist Movement. Pp. 217-220. 

* Peixotto. The French Revolution and Modern French 

Socialism. 
Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 
156-164, 233-239. 

. Germany. 

Dawson. German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassalle. 

* Ely. French and German Socialism. Chs. 9-15. 



IO ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

Ensor. Modern Socialism. Chs. 22, 28. 

* Hunter. Socialists at Work. Ch. 1, 

* Kirkup. History of Socialism. Especially ch. 9. 
Macdonald. The Socialist Movement. Pp. 213-216. 

* Russell. German Social Democracy. 

Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 
165-174, 224-232. 

6. United States. 

Debs. The American Movement. 

* Ely. The Labor Movement in America. Chs. 8-11. 
Engels. The Working-class Movement in America. 
Gilman. Socialism and the American Spirit. Chs. 1-6. 

* Hilquit. History of Socialism in the United States. 

Socialism in Theory and Practice. Appendix. 
Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 
272-278. 

* Stoddart. The New Socialism. Supplementary chap- 

ter on " Recent Developments of American 
Socialism.' ' 

7. Other Countries. 

For notes on the socialist movement in other 

countries see: — 
Hunter. Socialists at Work. Pp. 327-363. 
Macdonald. The Socialist Movement. Chs. 10-11. 
Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 

256-272. 



CHAPTER II 

THE SOCIALIST INDICTMENT OF CAPITALISM 

The socialists criticise the present system of 
society most severely, pointing out its weaknesses 
and vigorously assailing its very foundations. In 
so doing they make use of the same destructive 
arguments as are employed by the single taxers, 
anarchists, and reformers of all sorts, differing 
from them only in that they lay more stress than 
do the others upon the element of profits as the 
fundamental cause for the existence of those con- 
ditions which they propose to remedy. The word 
" profits," as used by the socialists, includes both 
rent and interest as well as that which is ordinarily 
designated as profits. 

Some of the more important counts in their 
indictment of capitalistic society may be briefly 
summarized as follows : — 

The existence of slums and sweat shops in our 
large cities ; the prevalence of child and woman 
labor ; the fact that thousands of men, williug to 
work, are daily unemployed ; the increasing con- 
centration of industry and the centralization of 

ii 



12 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

wealth ; the lack of equality of opportunity ; the 
frequent recurrence of panics and " hard times " ; 
the anarchy and wastes of competition and of capi- 
talistic production ; the universality of adultera- 
tion and of commercial dishonesty; the injustice 
of rent, interest, and profits, by means of which the 
workers are "exploited"; the presence on all 
sides of poverty, misery, insanity, crime, drunken- 
ness, and degeneracy ; the breaking up of the 
home as the result of industrial conditions; the 
growing seriousness of the divorce evil; the traffic 
in " white slaves " ; the prevalence of graft and 
corruption; and the inequality of classes before the 
law. 

This by no means exhausts the list of charges 
which the socialists bring against capitalistic so- 
ciety ; there are few things in the world to-day 
which do not suffer criticism at their hands. 



REFERENCES 

Almost all volumes dealing with the subject of 
socialism contain data on " The Socialist Indict- 
ment." See especially the following: — 

Benson. Socialism Made Plain. 

Boudin. Theoretical System of Karl Marx. Especially 
ch. 7. 

Brooks. The Social Unrest. 

Call. The Concentration of Wealth. 



SOCIALIST INDICTMENT OF CAPITALISM 1 3 

Chiozza-Money. Riches and Poverty. 
Devine. Misery and its Causes. 
Engels. The Condition of the Working-class in Eng- 
land in 1844. 
Ghent. Mass and Class. 

Our Benevolent Feudalism. 

Socialism and Success. 

* Hunter. Poverty. 

Kauffman. What is Socialism ? Ch. 1. 
Kelly. Twentieth Century Socialism. Book 2. 
Ladoff. American Pauperism and the Abolition of 

Poverty. 
Macdonald. The Socialist Movement. Chs. 3-5. 

* Richardson. Industrial Problems. Part 1. 

* Skelton. Socialism. Chs. 2-3. 

Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 
19-30. 

* Spargo. The Common Sense of Socialism. 

* Capitalist and Laborer. 
Tugan-Baranowsky. Modern Socialism, etc. Pp. 

35-83. 
Veblen. Theory of the Leisure Class. 
Theory of Business Enterprise. 



CHAPTER III 

SOCIALISM; ITS DEFINITION AND DIFFERENTIA- 
TION FROM OTHER SCHEMES FOR SOCIAL BET- 
TERMENT 

It is difficult accurately to define or to use the 
word "socialism," because, as ordinarily used, it 
may refer, and that correctly, to three distinct 
things : (1) to a certain set of principles or theo- 
ries ; (2) to a movement, usually a political party, 
whose members advocate those theories and are 
eager to attain the goal which the latter represent; 
and (3) to the prophesied stage of society (social- 
ism), the next after capitalism, which the members 
of the above movement are striving to bring about. 
Thus the stage of socialism, or the socialist state, 
is the goal of the socialist movement, a movement 
based upon the principles or theories of socialism. 

In the ideal socialist state, all of those things 
employed in the production of wealth, which are 
used in common, would be owned collectively, 
while all of those things which the individual uses 
directly for the satisfaction of his personal wants, 
or which he uses in his capacity as an individual, 
would remain the property of the individual. 

14 



SOCIAL BETTERMENT 1 5 

Thus factories, mines, railroads, telegraphs, tele- 
phones, etc., those instruments of production 
which to-day are being used by millions of people, 
and upon which countless millions depend for a 
livelihood, would be owned and operated collec- 
tively under socialism ; but a carpenter's tools, or 
a man's lawn-mower, his clothing, and many other 
things used solely by him, would be owned by 
him. The situation would differ from the present 
primarily in the fact that to-day the greater or 
more important instruments of production are 
owned by individuals called capitalists, who hire 
thousands of men to work for them, and who man- 
age industry with an eye only to their individual 
profit, while under socialism the industries would 
be owned collectively by the workers through the 
medium of the government, and would be man- 
aged by them by means of the initiative, the ref- 
erendum, and the recall, 1 with the interests of the 

1 At present the socialists of the United States use the initia- 
tive, the referendum, and the recall in conducting the affairs of 
their political party, the idea being always to keep the control 
of the organization in the hands of its dues-paying members. 
Strange to say, however, these stanch advocates of Democracy 
are bitterly opposed to the adoption of the direct primary, the 
reason being that they fear that some other political party, by 
means of it, might succeed in capturing the socialist organization 
as soon as it became strong enough to justify the attempt being 
made. 



l6 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

public always in mind. Thus, under socialism, 
there would be no capitalist class, because there 
would be no private ownership of the greater 
means of production. Socialism, however, would 
not abolish capital, for there would still remain as 
great a need for its use in the production of 
wealth as exists to-day under capitalism. The 
only change that would occur in this connection is 
that capital would be collectively, instead of pri- 
vately, owned. 

Socialism is not Government Ownership, although 
by many people, and strange to say even by some 
so-called socialists, they are considered as being 
identical. 

The socialists declare that government owner- 
ship is a reform which merely substitutes the 
government, controlled by the capitalists, for the 
capitalist as an employer of labor. It brings about 
only a change of taskmasters, and in many re- 
spects a most unsatisfactory change, for under 
government ownership the workers have less con- 
trol over wages, hours, and the conditions of 
employment than under private ownership and 
operation. As a rule, governmental employees are 
not permitted to form trade-unions, nor can they 
actively participate in politics. At times of 
strikes, armed force can be used more effectively 



SOCIAL BETTERMENT \J 

to compel them to return to work. The socialists 
also argue that any great amount of government 
ownership would seriously hinder the concentra- 
tion of industry, and thereby prolong the life of 
capitalistic society, by doing away with many 
unfair discriminations, thus enabling the small 
corporation to compete on an equal footing with 
the large corporation. It is because of these 
things that they ordinarily oppose government 
ownership, although by some it is advocated as 
a stepping-stone to the establishment of socialism. 

The Socialist Movement must not be confused 
with the Cooperative Movement. They are not the 
same, although the principle of cooperation lies at 
the very root of the socialist teachings. Social- 
ists have consistently opposed the policy of laissez- 
faire both in theory and in practice, and declare 
against all industrial competition. They do not, 
however, seek to abolish competition in any field 
other than the industrial, because they feel that 
under proper conditions competition tends to 
develop the best that lies within the individual. 

The proposed socialist state is known by many 
as the "Cooperative Commonwealth," because in 
such a stage of society the principles of coopera- 
tion would be carried out to the fullest extent. 
Nevertheless, there are many regards in which 



1 8 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

these two movements differ from each other. 
Cooperation, or the application of cooperative 
principles, has been tried many times in the past. 
Socialism has never been tried, although commu- 
nistic or cooperative colonies and certain social 
experiments have been frequently and incorrectly 
referred to by the opponents of socialism as 
evidences of its failure and impracticability. 
Cooperation does not represent a stage in the 
evolution of society ; socialists claim that social- 
ism does. Cooperation is a social reform measure, 
and can and does exist side by side with capital- 
ism. Socialism is not a social reform measure and 
cannot exist under capitalism. Cooperation is the 
voluntary association of interested individuals for 
the purpose of carrying out some definite object, 
such as the establishment and operation of coop- 
erative stores, factories, mines, and similar enter- 
prises. Socialism is not a voluntary association 
of a small number of individuals. Under it all 
society would be organized upon a cooperative 
basis, the cooperation being compulsory rather 
than voluntary. 

Socialism is not Profit-sharing. In a profit-shar- 
ing establishment, the workers have no direct con- 
trol over the industry in which they are employed. 
They labor for a capitalist or for a group of capi- 



SOCIAL BETTERMENT 1 9 

talists and receive at the end of the year, in addi- 
tion to wages, a portion of the profits of the 
business. Like cooperation, profit-sharing is a 
social reform measure which has been tried and 
which is in no way opposed to the existence or the 
continuance of capitalism. Under socialism, there 
would be no capitalist class ; the workers would 
control the industries of the nation and would 
work entirely for themselves, or for what would 
then be the same thing, society. 

Socialism is not Anarchism. Although radically 
opposed to each other, these two ideals of the 
future state of society have been and still are con- 
stantly confounded with each other. This is to 
be explained on the following grounds : — 
(a) Both are based upon radical principles. 
(J) The destructive arguments of both follow 

the same lines of thought. 
(<?) In the early days communistic colonies or 
experiments were proposed and also es- 
tablished by both socialists and anarchists. 
(cT) It has not been more than two or three dec- 
ades since these two ideals became dis- 
tinct in the minds of their followers. As 
late as the middle '80's, men who were 
anarchists thought and called themselves 
socialists. 



20 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

A belief in anarchism is based upon the doc- 
trine of Individualism carried to its logical con- 
clusion. Anarchism places the rights and interests 
of the individual above those of society and leads 
finally to the ideal of no government. Socialism, 
on the other hand, is collectivism. From its point 
of view the rights and interests of society are 
paramount and must be conserved under all cir- 
cumstances. Socialism proposes an ideal state in 
which the collectivity acting through the govern- 
ment carries on the production and exchange of 
wealth, as well as the greatest possible number of 
other activities consistent with the welfare of the 
people. In brief, from the standpoint of the social- 
ists the government is to be all in all, while from 
that of the anarchist is to be non-existent; the 
individual is to do everything. 

The two ideals also differ on the subjects of 
religion and the family relation. Anarchism, 
denying all authority, divine as well as temporal, 
leads logically to an acceptance of the idea of 
free love and to a denial of the authority of the 
Church. It claims that the individual is above 
the State and the Church, and that consequently 
he should not be forced to obey the mandates of 
either. Socialism, on the other hand, is not op- 
posed to religion although there are some social- 



SOCIAL BETTERMENT 21 

ists, as there are some Democrats and some 
Republicans, who are infidels or even atheists. 
Socialist congresses and party declarations have 
steadfastly maintained that religion is a matter 
with which the socialist party does not concern 
itself. It is a question that should be settled 
solely by the individual. The prevalent convic- 
tion that socialism is atheistic is due, no doubt, to 
the fact that a large number of socialists oppose, 
not religion, but the activity of the Church in 
behalf of the interests of the capitalist class and 
in opposition to economic and political reforms. 
Nor is socialism opposed to the home and the 
monogamous family, although a few radical and 
eccentric socialists have expressed ideas to the 
contrary. The socialists hold that the home is 
being broken up because of the industrial and 
social conditions which prevail under capitalism. 
The employment of women and children in fac- 
tories and stores, the low wages and long hours, 
the highly unsatisfactory housing conditions of 
the working class, the " he " towns of the West 
and the "she" towns of the East, all make for 
the breaking up of the home. The socialists 
argue that only under socialism would it be pos- 
sible to have more and better homes and conse- 
quently a better family relation. Higher wages, 



22 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

a shorter work day, steady employment, the elim- 
ination of profits from the industrial world, all 
of which they claim would come with socialism, 
would aid greatly in developing a higher and 
more ideal home life for the people. 

There are two general groups of anarchists : 
(1) the Individualist or Philosophical Anarchists, 
and (2) the Anarchist Communists. Briefly, the 
former believe in the peaceful propagation of an- 
archistic doctrines, and maintain that a stage of 
anarchism will come as the result of the gradual 
extension of the laissez-faire policy on the part of 
the government. The latter advocate the use of 
violent and revolutionary measures as a means 
of bringing about the desired ideal. 

Nihilism is often confused with both socialism 
and anarchism, but strictly speaking it is neither. 
As Kirkup has pointed out, 2 the name of nihilism 
"is often erroneously applied to the whole revo- 
lutionary movement" in Russia, although it should 
properly be restricted to the agitations of the 
period 1855-1870. The nihilists bowed before 
no authority of any kind, and accepted no prin- 
ciple on faith. "They weighed political institu- 
tions and social reforms, religion and the family, 
in the balances of that negative criticism, which 
2 History of Socialism, pp. 257-258. 



SOCIAL BETTERMENT 23 

was their prevailing characteristic, and they found 
them all wanting. With revolutionary impatience 
they rejected everything that had come down from 
the past, good and bad alike. They had no re- 
spect for art or poetry, sentiment or romance." 
They were interested in the matters of "daily 
bread for all" and an elementary education for 
the common people. 

Socialism is not Communism. Under socialism, 
although there would be collective ownership of the 
means of production and exchange, there would still 
be private ownership of income. Communism, 
however, goes one step further and proposes common 
ownership of income. It usually advocates equal- 
ity in the division of the products of society. So- 
cialism, on the other hand, is opposed to any and 
all schemes of "dividing up." Communism also 
differs from socialism in that those who believe in 
it do not accept the doctrines of the evolutionary 
development of society or of the necessity of ap- 
pealing primarily to the working class in order to 
bring about the adoption of communistic ideas. 

Communism usually takes the form of colony 
or community experiments, and is most frequently 
known as Utopian Socialism. 3 In the United 

8 See pp. 39-40 for a more detailed explanation of Utopian 
Socialism. 



24 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

States it is represented by a long line of unsuc- 
cessful attempts to introduce the colony mode of 
life, and reached its point of greatest popularity 
in the Bellamy or Nationalist movement during 
the later '80's and the early '90's. 

Socialism is not Social Reform. The present day 
sees a widespread interest in social reform meas- 
ures in all countries. Social reform retains the 
dominant features of capitalism, i.e. the private 
ownership of industry and the two economically 
antagonistic classes, the workers and the capital- 
ists. It seeks to remove only the more flagrant 
evils of capitalism. Its advocates propose such 
remedial measures as labor and factory legislation, 
municipal and political reforms, and an extension 
of the functions and powers of the government. 
Socialism, on the other hand, would supplant capi- 
talism by a state of society in which there would 
be a democratically organized collective ownership 
and operation of the means of production and ex- 
change. It proposes a complete and radical change 
from our present system, but only by peaceful 
means. 

For a number of years social reform measures 
were vigorously opposed by the socialists, but of 
late there has been considerable discussion regard- 
ing the necessity or the advisability of using such 



SOCIAL BETTERMENT 2$ 

"half-way" means as a method of gradually bring- 
ing about the socialist state. But even though 
some of the socialists, possibly a majority, take this 
position, they differ from the social reformers in 
that they consider such measures only as a means 
to an end, the end being socialism, while the re- 
formers look upon these measures as an end in 
themselves and feel that their adoption would 
result in the improvement and retention of the 
present system of capitalistic industry through 
the removal of its more glaring evils. 

Socialism is not the Single Tax. The advocates 
of the single tax propose to abolish all taxes save 
one, a single tax levied upon the value of land 
exclusive of improvements. It is claimed that 
such a tax would be just and expedient ; that it 
would greatly increase production by exempting 
improvements from taxation ; that it would abol- 
ish speculation in land; that it would be simple 
and easy of administration ; and that it would 
materially assist in bringing about a more equitable 
distribution of wealth. The single taxers accept 
the doctrines of laissez-faire, and consequently 
believe in Individualism, Competition, and Free 
Trade. 

It is argued by the opponents of the tax that it 
would be difficult to administer ; that it would not 



26 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

supply a sufficient revenue for the government; 
that it would be unjust because it would tax only 
the landowners; that it would tend to weaken 
the idea of private ownership of land ; and that it 
would lead ultimately to the government owner- 
ship of land with private use or cultivation. 

Contrasting the single tax with socialism, it is 
to be noted that the advocates of the former rec- 
ognize only one form of exploitation, rent, and but 
one oppressor, the landlord, both of which they 
would abolish. Socialists, on the other hand, argue 
that profits and interest, as well as rent, are forms 
of exploitation and can be gotten rid of only by 
abolishing the private ownership of industry. 
Thus logically the socialists should believe in the 
nationalization of land, and some of them do ; but 
it is in connection with this question of what to do 
with the land that the ideas of the socialists are 
most indefinite, diverse, and impossible of classifi- 
cation. The single taxers would retain the domi- 
nant features of capitalism with its economic 
classes, with competition between the industrial 
units, and with private ownership of industry and 
the consequent exploitation of the workers, all of 
which the socialists seek to abolish. The single 
taxers also differ from the socialists in that they 
do not recognize the existence of the class struggle. 



SOCIAL BETTERMENT 2J 

REFERENCES 

i. Definition. 

Barker. British Socialism. Ch. 1. 
Benson. Socialism Made Plain. Ch. 4. 
Blatchford. Merrie England. Ch. 12. 
Britain for the British. Ch. 8. 

* Ely. Socialism and Social Reform. Part 1, chs. 2-3* 
Flint. Socialism. Ch. 1. 

* Richardson. Industrial Problems. Part 2, ch. 1. 
Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 

1-18. 

* Spargo. Socialism. Ch. 1. 
Vail. Modern Socialism. Ch. 2. 

2. Democracy and Socialism. 

(a) For a brief but excellent exposition of the Initia- 
tive, the Referendum, and the Recall see "A Primer 
of Direct Legislation " by Parsons, Pomeroy, Tyson, 
and others, reprinted from The Arena of May, June, 
and July, 1906. 

Regarding the application of these democratic 
measures to industry in accordance with the ideas 
of the socialists see the following : — 

(6) Statement by Socialists. 

* Ghent. Socialism and Success. Pp. 224 ff. 
Gronltjnd. The Cooperative Commonwealth. Chs. 

5, 7, 8. 

* Mills. The Struggle for Existence. Chs. 13-14. 

* Vail. Modern Socialism. Ch. 8. 

Wells. New Worlds for Old. Ch. 9, sec. 3. 

(c) Criticism by Non-socialists. 

* Anonymous. The Case Against Socialism. Ch. 8. 

* Flint. Socialism. Ch. 9. 

Guyot. Socialistic Fallacies. Book 9. 



28 ♦ ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

3. Socialism and Government Ownership. 

(a) Socialism and Government Ownership Differentiated. 

Mills. The Struggle for Existence. Ch. 38-39. 

* Spargo. The Socialists; Who They Are and What 

They Stand For. Ch. 14. 
Vail. Modern Socialism. Ch. 14, sees. 5, 14. 

(&) Exposition of Government Ownership. 
Le Rossignol and Stewart. State Socialism in New 

Zealand. 
Reeves. State Experiments in Australia and New 

Zealand. 
Seligman. Principles of Economics. Ch. 33, sees. 

222-226. 

4. Socialism and Cooperation. 

(a) The Evils of Competition. 

* Blatchpord. Britain for the British. Ch. 9. 

* Merrie England. Ch. 9. 

Ely. Evolution of Industrial Society. Part 2, chs. 

1-2. 
Reeve. The Cost of Competition. 
Vail. Modern Socialism. Ch. 7. 

(b) Socialism and Cooperation. 

Ensor. Modern Socialism. Ch. 20. 

Ferri. Socialism and Modern Science. Pp. 35-38. 

* Kelly. Twentieth Century Socialism. Pp. 36-40. 

(c) History and Ideals of the Cooperative Movement. 

Ackland and Jones. Workingmen Cooperators. 
Adams and Sumner. Labor Problems. Book 2, ch. 
10. 

* Aves. Cooperative Industry. 

Bemis and Others. History of Cooperation in the 
United States. 



SOCIAL BETTERMENT 29 

Cross. Cooperative Stores. 

Ely. Labor Movement in America. Ch. 7. 

* Fay. Cooperation at Home and Abroad. 
Holyoake. The Cooperative Movement of To-day. 

* The History of Cooperation in England. 
Jones. Cooperative Production. 
Lloyd. Labor Co-partnership. 

Potter. The Cooperative Movement in Great Britain. 
Seager. Introduction to Economics. Pp. 513 ff. 

5. Socialism and Profit-sharing. 

* Adams and Sumner. Labor Problems. Book 2, ch. 9. 
Gilman. Socialism and the American Spirit. Ch. 9. 
Seager. Introduction to Economics. Pp. 510 ff. 

6. Socialism and Anarchism. 

(a) In addition to the following references see the 
works of Bakounine, Grave, Hertzka, Krapotkine, 
Mackay, Malato, Michel, Most, Proudhon, Stirner, 
and Tolstoi quoted in the bibliography at the con- 
clusion of this volume. 

(6) The Teachings and History of Anarchy. 
Bailie. Josiah Warren. 
Donisthorpe. Individualism. 

Law in a Free State. 
Ely. Labor Movement in America. Ch. 10. 

French and German Socialism. Ch. 7. 

* Eltzbacher. Anarchism. 

Hilquit. History of Socialism in the United States. 

Part 2, ch. 3, sec. 2. 
Kaufmann. Utopias, etc. Ch. 10. 
Kirkup. History of Socialism. Chs. 3, 10. 
Lum. Economics of Anarchy. 
Mackay and Others. A Plea for Liberty. 
Menger. The Right to the Full Produce of Labor. 
Ch. 7. 



30 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

Rae. Contemporary Socialism. Ch. 8. 

Ritchie. Natural Rights. 

Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 

40-46. 
Spencer. The Man versus the State. 
Tucker. Instead of a Book. 

* Yarros. Anarchism ; Its Aims and Methods. 

* Zenker. Anarchism. 

(c) Socialism and Anarchism Contrasted. 

Barker. British Socialism. Ch. 30. 

* Ely. Socialism and Social Reform. Part 1, ch. 9. 
Fabian Essays. Pp. 31-56, 157-184. 

Guyot. Socialistic Fallacies. Book 2, chs. 6-7. 

* Kelly. Twentieth Century Socialism. Pp. 31-33. 
La Monte and Mencken. Men versus the Man. 
Macdonald. The Socialist Movement. Pp. 122-124. 

* Plechanoff. Anarchism and Socialism. 

Shaw. The Impossibilities of Anarchism. Fabian 

Tract, no. 45. 
Simons. Socialism versus Anarchy. Pocket Library 

of Socialism, no. 31. 

* Spargo. Socialists; Who They Are and What They 

Stand For. Pp. 119-126. 
Sotheran. Horace Greeley, etc. Ch. 1. 
Tugan-Baranowsky. Modern Socialism, etc. Pp. 

169-185. 
Vail. Modern Socialism. Ch. 14, sec. 15. 

7. Nihilism. 

* Rae. Contemporary Socialism. Ch. 9. 
Kirkup. History of Socialism. Pp. 257 ff. 

8. Socialism and Communism. 

(a) History and Ideals of Communism. 

* Guthrie. Socialism Before the French Revolution. 

Ch. 1. 



SOCIAL BETTERMENT 3 1 

* Kaufmann. Socialism. Book 2, chs. 3-5. 
Kautsky. Communism in Central Europe in the Time 

of the Reformation. 
Woolsey. Communism and Socialism. Ch. 2. 

(6) Socialism and Communism Contrasted. 

Barker. British Socialism. Ch. 29. 
Guyot. Socialistic Fallacies. Book 1. 

* Kelly. Twentieth Century Socialism. Pp. 33-36. 

* Macdonald. The Socialist Movement. Pp. 122-124. 
Villiers. The Socialist Movement in England. Part 

3, ch. 7. 
(Also note references under " Utopian Socialism/ \ 
pp. 76-78). 

9. Socialism and Social Reform Contrasted. 

* Ely. Evolution of Industrial Society. Part 2, ch. 

14. 

* Socialism and Social Reform. Part IV. 

* Hilquit. Socialism in Theory and Practice. Part 2, 

chs. 1-5. 
Kampffmeyer. Changes in the Theory, etc. Chs. 2, 

4,6. 
Kautsky. The Class Struggle. Pp. 88-93. 
Knott. Conservative Socialism. 

10. Socialism and the Single Tax. 

(a) History and Ideals of the Single Tax. 

See especially the works of Henry George and 
the files of The Public, a single tax periodical, 
published weekly in Chicago. 

* Anonymous. The Story of My Dictatorship. 
Bullock. Introduction to the Study of Economics. 

Ch. 16, sec. 1. 



32 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

Dawson. The Unearned Increment. 

* Fillebrown. The A B C of Taxation. 
Post. The Single Tax. 

Seager. Introduction to Economics. Pp. 517 ff. 

* Sherman. Natural Taxation. 
Thackeray. The Land and the Community. 
Wallace. Land Nationalization. 

(b) Criticism of Single Tax Doctrines. 

Cox. Land Nationalization. 

Rae. Contemporary Socialism. Ch. 12. 

* Smart. Taxation of Land Values and the Single Tax. 
Sttjbbs. Land and the Laborer. 

* Walker. Land and its Rent. Pp. 141-182. 
Winn. Property in Land. 

(c) Socialism and the Single Tax Contrasted. 

Ely. Socialism and Social Reform. Part 1, ch. 9. 

* Hilquit. Socialism in Theory and Practice. Pp. 291- 

296. 
Simons. Single Tax versus Socialism. Pocket Library 

of Socialism, no. 6. 
Vail. Principles of Scientific Socialism. Ch. 13, 

sec. 7. 

ii. Socialism and the Home. 

(a) Statement of the Socialist Position. 

* Bebel. Woman under Socialism. 
Blatchford. Britain for the British. Ch. 7. 

* Ely. Socialism and Social Reform. Part 1, ch. 5. 
Engels. The Origin of the Family, Private Property, 

and the State. 
Engels and Marx. The Communist Manifesto, 
Pp. 39-41. 



SOCIAL BETTERMENT 33 

* Kautsky. The Class Struggle. Pp. 124-129. 
Kelly. Twentieth Century Socialism. Pp. 40-42. 
Kerr. Socialism and the Home. Pocket Library of 

Socialism, no. 28. 
Mills. The Struggle for Existence. Ch. 40. 

* Richardson. Industrial Problems. Pp. 218-221. 
Spargo. The Substance of Socialism. Pp. 53 ff. 

Socialists; Who They Are and What They Stand 
For. Pp. 126-133. 

* Stoddart. The New Socialism. Ch. 10. 
Vail. Modern Socialism. Ch. 14, sec. 3. 
Wells. New Worlds for Old. Ch. 6. 

Socialism and the Family. 

(b) Criticism of the Socialist Position. 

* Anonymous. The Case Against Socialism. Chs. 11- 

12. 
Barker. British Socialism. Ch. 25. 

* Goldstein. Socialism; The Nation of Fatherless 

Children. Pp. 143-296. 

12. Socialism and Religion. 

(a) Statement of the Socialist Position. 

* Ely. Socialism and Social Reform. Part 1, ch. 5. 
Ferri. Socialism and Modern Science. Pp. 59-67. 
Mills. The Struggle for Existence. Ch. 30. 
Richardson. Industrial Problems. Pp. 221-224. 
Skelton. Socialism. Pp. 246 ff. 

* Spargo. The Spiritual Significance of Modern 

Socialism. 

* Socialists; Who They Are and What They Stand 

For. Pp. 126-133. 

* Stoddart. The New Socialism. Ch. 1, sec. 3; ch. 

11. 
Untermann. Science and Revolution. Chs. 14-17. 
Wells. New Worlds for Old. Ch. 9. 



34 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

(6) Criticism of the Socialist Position, 

Anonymous. The Case against Socialism. Ch. 10. 
Barker. British Socialism. Chs. 26-27. 

* Flint. Socialism. Ch. 11. 

* Goldstein. Socialism; The Nation of Fatherless 

Children. Pp. 8-30, 59-142. 
Hartman. Socialism versus Christianity. 
Woolsey. Communism and Socialism. Pp. 238-249. 

13. Socialist Party Organization. 

Mills. The Struggle for Existence. Chs. 44-45. 
Richardson. Industrial Problems. Part 2, ch. 5. 
The Socialist Party. Pocket Library of Socialism, 
no. 33. 



CHAPTER IV 

CLASSIFICATION OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF 
SOCIALISTS 

One of the most important causes of the great 
confusion and misunderstanding which have arisen 
in connection with the subject of socialism is the 
great diversity of views obtaining among those 
who are called socialists. It is but natural to 
expect such a diversity if one realizes how com- 
prehensive and all-inclusive are the doctrines upon 
which the socialist movement is based. A similar 
confusion of ideas is also found among those who 
believe in the Christian religion or in the reten- 
tion of capitalism. 

An examination of the different groups or move- 
ments among the socialists discloses several points 
of similarity. All socialists severely condemn the 
wage system and its evils; they are opposed to 
what they describe as the industrial anarchy and 
the wastes of capitalism ; they place the interests 
of society above those of the individual ; and they 
insist that the present order cannot endure, that 
it must pass away and be succeeded by a stage of 

35 



36 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

society, socialism, which they believe will be far 
superior to that which exists to-day. 

Among those usually called socialists it is 
possible to distinguish six distinct groups : 
(1) Radicals; (2) Christian Socialists; (3) Fa- 
bian Socialists ; (4) State Socialists ; (5) Utopian 
Socialists ; and (6) Scientific Socialists. 

Radicals. Those who advocate new and radi- 
cal measures of social reform are frequently and 
incorrectly called socialists. This is true of labor- 
ites, reformers, and radicals of all kinds. Many 
who call themselves socialists and who take an 
active part in the socialist agitation are in reality 
nothing more than humanitarians, radicals, or 
" advanced " thinkers. 

Christian Socialists. Christian socialists may 
be roughly divided into two groups. The first 
consists of those who preach to both employer 
and employee the doctrines of " Love ye one an- 
other" and "Do unto others as ye would that 
others should do unto you," with the object of 
bringing about better industrial and social rela- 
tions. They believe in the possibility of the 
application of Christianity to current problems. 
They are social reformers working for the re- 
moval of certain abuses which have crept into 
the present social and industrial order. The sec- 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 37 

ond group is made up of those who believe that 
the ideals of Christianity can be realized only 
under a regime of socialism. Neither group as 
a rule advocates any of the fundamental princi- 
ples of scientific or Marxian socialism, or believes 
in the organization of a political party to carry 
out the ideals of its members. 

Another method of classification discloses two 
rather well-defined movements among the Chris- 
tian socialists : first, that of the Protestant Chris- 
tian Socialism, found for the most part in England 
with a small following in the United States and 
in some of the European countries ; and secondly, 
that of Catholic Christian Socialism, which has 
its stronghold in Catholic Europe. The two 
movements have separate and distinct histories. 

Fabian Socialists. The term " Fabian " is most 
frequently used to designate the members of the 
Fabian Society of London, although at times it is 
also applied to the adherents of the principles ad- 
vanced by that society. The Fabians are found 
only in England. The Fabian Society was or- 
ganized in 1884, and although it has but about 1500 
members, it exerts a much more powerful influence 
than its numbers indicate. It has in its ranks 
many of the most prominent men and women of 
England. 



38 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

The Fabians believe in the abolition of the 
private ownership of land and industrial capital so 
far as possible, and in the organization of society 
upon a collective basis in so far as it is expedient. 
They are decidedly opportunist in their demands, 
advocating government and municipal ownership, 
educating and appealing to all classes, and striving 
to gain their ends without reference to party lines 
or affiliations, always using the means nearest at 
hand regardless of its character. As an organiza- 
tion, the Fabians have never founded a separate 
political party. In later years they have been con- 
tent to work chiefly through the Labor Party of 
Great Britain. 

State Socialists. Socialists of the Chair. State 
socialists believe in extending the functions of the 
state into fields hitherto occupied by the in- 
dividual, the idea being to bring about economic 
and social conditions which will work for the wel- 
fare of the people. They would use the present 
state as a means of accomplishing great economic 
and social changes, such as government and 
municipal ownership of various forms of capital, 
governmental irrigation, reclamation and forestry 
projects, workingmen's insurance, and various 
other reforms. 

Some modern or scientific socialists object to 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 39 

state socialism on the ground that it is nothing 
more than government ownership, and that conse- 
quently it would merely replace the capitalistic 
exploitation of the workers with their exploitation 
by the government. They claim that it is objec- 
tionable because it is favored by the ruling class 
as a means of quelling the clamor of the workers 
for socialism, because it will tend to put off the 
establishment of the cooperative commonwealth, 
and because it has as its ideal, a military, landlord, 
and police state, which is not favorably inclined 
towards democracy and an organized socialistic 
working class. 

Utopian Socialists. The Utopian socialists ad- 
vocate some plan or arrangement, usually commu- 
nistic in nature, in accordance with which they 
desire to organize society upon a perfect basis, 
thereby removing all objectionable conditions for 
all time to come. They do not recognize the 
evolutionary character of society, but basing their 
arguments upon eternal truths, say " Go to ; let us 
construct a society after our own hearts." They 
hold that if mankind could only be induced to 
accept their teachings, they could put their plans 
for the regeneration of society into practice at 
once, and they would remain henceforth the per- 
manent state. The Utopians wish to free all 



40 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

society, and consequently appeal to all classes, but 
more particularly to the educated and the rich. 

Scientific or Marxian Socialists. Scientific so- 
cialism is based upon the writings of Karl Marx 
and Friedrich Engels, particularly upon those of 
the former, dating from the publication of the 
" Communist Manifesto " in 1848. These two Ger- 
man radicals wished to make a science of socialism, 
to put it upon a scientific basis in contrast with 
the "mish-mash" of critical statements, false 
theories, and pictures of future society promul- 
gated by the founders of different sects, which in 
the words of Engels made up the " eclectic, aver- 
age socialism " of the middle part of the nine- 
teenth century. 1 They set out to explain the 
origin of capitalistic society, to analyze and account 
for its dominant characteristics, and to attempt 
an interpretation of its future development. The 
outcome of their work is seen in that group of 
doctrines or theories, known as " Scientific Social- 
ism, " which lies at the foundation of the inter- 
national socialist movement. 2 

1 Engels, Socialism, Scientific and Utopian, p. 27. 

2 It is impossible to offer an interpretation of the theories of 
scientific socialism or of the present attitude of the socialist 
movement towards these theories which cannot and which will 
not be seriously questioned by many. In the following pages 
an effort has been made to state the situation carefully and fairly. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 41 

The scientific socialists appeal primarily to the 
members of the working class whether they are 
engaged in intellectual or in manual pursuits. 
With the rallying cry of " The proletarians of the 
world have nothing to lose but their chains ; they 
have a world to win ! " 3 they call upon the work- 
ingmen of all countries to unite in opposition to 
the capitalist or employing class. The economic 
and social freedom of the working class, and inci- 
dentally of society at large, so they declare, can 
come only through the activity of a united and 
class-conscious socialistic proletariat. It is be- 
cause of these things that the scientific socialist 
movement is known as a " working-class move- 
ment," although its propaganda appeals to numer- 
ous enthusiasts and humanitarians in all walks of 
life. 

Originally the scientific socialist movement was 
based upon the following principles : (a) The 
Evolution of Society ; (6) The Economic Inter- 
pretation of History with its accompanying doc- 
trine of the Class Struggle ; (c) The Marxian 
Labor Theory of Value ; (d) The Marxian Theory 
of Surplus Value; (0) The Socialist Explanation of 
Crises ; (/) The Right of Labor to its Full Prod- 
uct ; (</) The Theory of the Increasing Concen- 
8 Communist Manifesto, p. 67. 



42 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

tration of Industry ; (Ji) The Theory of Increasing 
Misery ; and (i) The Catastrophe Theory. The 
years that have elapsed since Marx and Engels 
wrote have brought many changes in the interpre- 
tation of these doctrines, as well as in the attitude 
of the socialist movement towards them. 

(a) The Evolution of Society. 

The scientific socialists hold that there is noth- 
ing certain but change. Society has passed through 
various stages : it has never remained stationary, 
and consequently will continue to evolve. The 
stages through which it has passed have always 
been defined by the dominant mode of production, 
— the use of different kinds of tools in the pro- 
duction of wealth, resulting in the formation of 
distinct types of social organization. Thus the 
hand-loom made feudalism possible, while the 
machine and the steam-engine brought about capi- 
talism. All races or countries have not passed 
through all stages; changes have been gradual; 
and the remnants of preceding stages exist to-day, 
even in those countries which are predominantly 
capitalistic. It is claimed that the next stage 
into which society will evolve will be that of 
socialism. The reasons for this contention will 
be discussed in Chapter V. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 43 

(6) The Economic Interpretation of History and 
the Class Struggle. 

The economic interpretation of history in the 
hands of the scientific socialists is a method of ex- 
plaining the history of mankind and of prophesy- 
ing the ultimate advent of a regime of socialism. 

History has most frequently been interpreted 
from one of the following points of view or from 
a combination of several of them : — 

(1) Political, which resolves itself into a state- 
ment that, " Throughout all history there can be 
discerned a definite movement from monarchy to 
aristocracy, and from aristocracy to democracy, 
and that there is a constant progress from abso- 
lutism to freedom both in idea and in institution." 

(2) Religious, which is to the effect that one 
can interpret history from the standpoint of the 
religious and ethical ideas of a people. 

(3) The Great Man Theory, which seeks its 
explanation of history in the acts, thoughts, and 
leadership of great men. 

(4) Physical environment, which claims that 
the history of a nation is shaped by its moun- 
tains, rivers, climate, and other physiographic 
features. 

(5) Racial characteristics, which explains his- 



44 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

tory from the standpoint of the racial traits of a 
people. 

The scientific socialists deny the validity of 
all of these methods of interpreting history and 
propose instead the "economic interpretation of 
history." This doctrine is variously known as 
"economic determinism," "historical materialism," 
and the "materialistic conception of history." It 
was not original with Marx and Engels, but it 
was they who stated it in the most satisfactory 
manner and who first attempted to make exten- 
sive use of it in interpreting the history of man- 
kind and in prophesying the ultimate advent of 
socialism. 

In the words of Engels the economic interpre- 
tation of history is to the effect that "in every 
historical epoch, the prevailing mode of economic 
production and exchange, and the social organiza- 
tion necessarily following from it, form the basis 
upon which is built up, and from which alone 
can be explained, the political and intellectual 
history of that epoch; that consequently the 
whole history of mankind (since the dissolution of 
primitive tribal society, holding land in common 
ownership) has been the history of class strug- 
gles, contests between exploiting and exploited, 
ruling and oppressed classes ; that the history of 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 45 

these class struggles forms a series of evolutions 
in which, nowadays, a stage has been reached 
where the exploited and oppressed class — the 
proletariat — cannot attain its emancipation from 
the sway of the exploiting and ruling class — the 
bourgeoisie — without at the same time, and once 
and for all, emancipating society at large from 
all exploitation, oppression, class distinctions, and 
class struggles." 4 

Briefly and concisely stated, the proposition re- 
solves itself into a declaration that " all history is 
the history of class struggles," the character of 
the contending classes being fixed by the prevail- 
ing mode of wealth production and exchange. 
In the past these struggles have resulted " either 
in the revolutionary reconstitution of society at 
large, or in the common ruin of the contending 
classes." At present, so the scientific socialists 
argue, the struggle has narrowed down to a con- 
test between the workers on the one hand and 
the capitalists on the other. The former can 
have no interests in common with the latter. 
Both are arrayed in hostile camps and must con- 
tinue to war upon each other until finally, through 
the united action of the workers upon the polit- 
ical or upon the industrial field, or upon both, the 
4 Preface to the Communist Manifesto, p. 8. 



46 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

capitalist class will be vanquished, capitalism will 
be destroyed, and socialism will be ushered into 
existence. 

It has sometimes been urged by the critics of 
Marxian socialism that its followers pit one class 
against the other, in short that they make the 
class struggle. The socialists reply that the class 
struggle is not of their making, but that it is the 
outgrowth of the prevailing system of industry which 
groups together on the one hand a constantly in- 
creasing large class of propertyless workers, and 
on the other hand a constantly decreasing class 
of the men who hire them, or the capitalists. 
The socialists merely call attention to the exist- 
ence of the class struggle and urge the workers 
to make use of it in striving for better conditions 
under which to live and work. But granting 
that they do not make the class struggle, it is 
urged by some that the importance which they 
give this doctrine in their propaganda and the 
manner in which its recognition by the working- 
class is encouraged by them, , cannot help but 
cause both classes to become increasingly bitter 
towards each other and thus prevent any united 
action looking towards their mutual benefit. 

The importance of the economic interpretation 
of history was greatly exaggerated by Marx, 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 47 

Engels, and the early socialists. In later years 
its advocates have softened, and in some regards 
have almost entirely reshaped, certain parts of 
the doctrine, so that it has lost a number of its 
harsh and dogmatic characteristics. 

The critics of this method of interpreting his- 
tory have raised the following objections : — 

(1) It is a fatalistic doctrine, placing too much 
stress upon the influence of environment, and en- 
tirely neglecting to take into consideration the 
actions of a free will. 

(2) It overlooks the part played by great men 
or leaders in the history of a nation. In late 
years there has been a noticeable return of his- 
torians to the "great man theory." This, no 
doubt, has been due to a very great extent to the 
prevailing popularity of Nietzsche's philosophy, 
and to the widespread acceptance of New Thought, 
Christian Science, and allied movements, all of 
which lay great stress upon the influence of mind 
over matter. 

(3) It does not consider the influence of spirit- 
ual or ethical factors, or of racial traits. 

(4) It exaggerates in all connections, political, 
social, and economic, the importance of the class 
struggle. 

(5) It is socialistic. 



48 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

(6) It leads to exaggeration by attempting to 
explain all history from one point of view, a 
thing which is impossible because of the great 
complexity of forces which go to shape the history 
of a nation. 

(<?) The Marxian Labor Theory of Value. 

Second only in importance to the economic 
interpretation of history, but in no way dependent 
upon it, is the Marxian labor theory of value. In 
analyzing value, Marx deals only with conditions 
as they exist in a stage of capitalism, and conse- 
quently defines wealth as an " accumulation of com- 
modities." A commodity is any product of labor 
that satisfies a human want. As such it has two 
values, a use value, and an exchange value ; that is, 

(1) having use value, it satisfies a human want, and 

(2) having exchange value, it can be exchanged 
upon the market for other commodities, or for 
money (which is a commodity). It is with the 
latter kind of value, i.e. exchange value, that Marx 
is concerned. 

Although price is exchange value expressed in 
terms of dollars and cents, exchange value is not 
price. Prices may fluctuate widely during an hour 
or a day, yet the value of an article during that 
time may remain the same, just as the level of the 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 49 

ocean is not affected by the rising or the falling of 
its waves. Value is more stable than price. 

Marx contends that in order that commodities 
may be exchanged, they must have some element 
in common. Therefore it is this element that 
must be used in explaining their value. It must 
also be used in measuring their value. Commodi- 
ties, being the product of labor, have a common 
element in the form of human labor power which 
has been expended in their production. It is this 
which creates and measures exchange value. The 
useless, lazy, or inefficient expenditure of labor- 
power does not create value; for, as Marx states, 
that "which determines the magnitude of the 
value of any article is the amount of labor socially 
necessary for its production," and " socially neces- 
sary labor" is defined as being that which is 
" required to produce an article under the normal 
conditions of production and with the average 
degree of skill and intensity prevalent at that 
time." 5 The unit employed by Marx in measur- 
ing the value of any commodity is the amount of 
socially necessary labor contained in a day of 
simple unskilled labor. It is necessary, therefore, 
to reduce skilled labor to terms of unskilled labor, 
but, according to Marx, this is not a difficult task 
6 Capital, vol. i. , p. 46. 



50 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

inasmuch as skilled labor " counts only as simple 
labor intensified, or, rather, as multiplied simple 
labor." "Experience," he further declares, 
"shows that this reduction is constantly being 
made." 6 

In his explanation of value Marx includes men- 
tal as well as physical labor. He also maintains 
that "labor is not the only source of material 
wealth. . . • As William Petty puts it, labor is 
its father and the earth its mother." 7 Labor, 
therefore, according to Marx, does not create all 
wealth : it creates only exchange values. 

One can say without danger of contradiction 
that the Marxian labor theory of value has been 
the one proposition in the Marxian system most 
vigorously, and in some instances most unintelli- 
gently, attacked by the opponents of socialism. 
All critics contend that it is not in harmony with 
the facts of the business world. The more impor- 
tant arguments urged against it may be briefly 
summarized as follows : — 

(1) The Marxian theory is not a satisfactory 
explanation of value because, by considering only 
those things upon which labor has been expended, 
Marx excludes from his analysis a large number 
of articles which possess value. 

6 Capital, vol. i., p. 61. 7 Ibid., p. 60. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 5 1 

(2) It is argued that it is impossible to reduce 
skilled labor to terms of unskilled labor. 

(3) Labor is not the only element possessed in 
common by things that have value. 

(4) Marx does not explain why it is that the 
expenditure of socially necessary labor creates 
value. He is satisfied with the mere statement 
that such is the case and offers no proof. 

(5) In the matter of exchange value there are 
two parties to be taken into consideration : (a) the 
producer, and (6) the consumer. Marx attempts 
to analyze value from the standpoint only of the 
producer. 

(6) A commodity to have exchange value must 
have time, place, and form utility. Primarily 
Marx considers form utility; indirectly he con- 
siders place utility; but he completely ignores 
time utility. The existence of time utility, even 
without the expenditure of labor-power, creates 
exchange value. 

(7) Marx errs when he states that mere ex- 
change, i.e. buying and selling, does not create 
value. 

(8) It is shown that Marx himself recognized 
the impossibility of harmonizing his labor theory 
of value with actual economic conditions, and 
that he abandoned it in the third volume of his 



52 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

"Capital" for a "price of production theory," 
" price of production " equalling the cost of pro- 
duction plus the average rate of profit. 8 

Various disciples of Marx and a few non- 
socialist apologists have tried to explain away 
the errors of this theory. Among the foremost 
of the latter is Werner Sombart, who suggests 
that " Marx may have been describing not what 
is, but what, in his opinion, ought to be ; all ex- 
change value ought to be created by labor, and 
when capital is in the proper hands, it will be so." 
Nothing in any of Marx's writings could lead one 
to such a conclusion, because he consistently states 
that exchange value is created by the socially nec- 
essary labor embodied in a commodity, and at no 
time does he state that such ought to be the case. 9 

Although the labor theory of value is one of 
the most important in the Marxian system, one is 
surprised to find the ignorance regarding its real 
significance and meaning which prevails among 
the socialists of all countries. This has led many 
to claim that a belief in socialism does not stand 
or fall with the acceptance or denial of the labor 

8 See especially Bbhm-Bawerk, Karl Marx and the Close 
of his System, chs. 2, 3. 

9 See Bohm-Bawerk, op. cit., ch. 5, for an excellent criti- 
cism of Sombart's position. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 53 

theory of value. Nevertheless, as will be seen 
from the subsequent sections of this chapter, its 
denial compels a denial of the greater portion of 
the Marxian system, for upon it are based a num- 
ber of the fundamental theories of socialism. 

(d) The Marxian Theory of Surplus Value. 

To explain the historical development of, and 
the primary cause for, the existence of capitalism 
was the task which Marx attempted. He found 
an explanation for the former in the economic in- 
terpretation of history. The latter, he declared, 
lay in the exploitation of the workers through the 
appropriation of a portion of their products (sur- 
plus values) by the employing or capitalist class. 
These surplus values arise through the ownership 
of the means of production by the capitalists who 
hire men to labor for them, paying in return a 
wage less than the exchange value of the products 
which the workers create. This, in brief, is the 
Marxian theory of surplus value, and although 
most socialists give Marx the credit for its formu- 
lation, its antecedents are found in the writings of 
earlier radicals, especially in those of the so-called 
Early English Socialists. 10 Marx, however, elabo- 

10 The group of writers known as u The Early English Social- 
, ists " were William Thompson (1786-1833), W. Godwin (1766- 



54 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

rated ideas which they had advanced and so re- 
shaped them as to produce what to many appears 
to be a more thorough and complete explanation 
of the exploitation of the working class. 

Marx maintains that surplus value, like exchange 
value, does not and cannot arise through mere ex- 
change, i.e. through buying and selling. It comes 
into being only through the following process: 
Labor-power is a commodity, and is bought and 
sold as is any other commodity. Consequently, its 
value is fixed by the same laws, that is, by the 
amount of socially necessary labor required to pro- 
duce it. The laborer receives a wage sufficient 
only to maintain his standard of living, or, in other 
words, sufficient only to support himself and family. 
By laboring six hours (necessary labor) he can pro- 
duce commodities equal in value to the wage which 
he receives. But instead of laboring six hours 
per day the employer hires him to work ten hours. 
Thus it is that the employer receives the product 
of ten hours' labor and returns to the worker as 
wages the value of that part of the product which 
has been created in six hours. The difference 



1836), J. F. Bray, C. Hall (1745-1825), J. Gray, and T. Hodg- 
skin. H. S. Foxwell, in an introductory chapter to Menger, 
Right to the Whole Produce of Labor, presents a most excel- 
lent discussion of these writers and their work. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 55 

between these amounts, or the product of four 
hours' labor, the capitalist keeps for himself. The 
letter is what Marx calls "surplus value" 

The money or capital which in any industry is 
used to pay wages, Marx calls "variable capital" ; 
that which is used to purchase raw materials, 
machinery, etc., he calls "constant capital" This 
differentiation is made because from his point of 
view machines, raw materials, etc., do not affect 
the value of the product ; they do not create ex- 
change value, — they merely transfer their value to 
the commodities which they assist in producing. 
Labor alone creates exchange value ; it alone in- 
troduces the variable element. By creating ex- 
change value, it also creates surplus value for the 
employer which he appropriates from the products 
of the workers in the form of rent, interest, and 
profits. 

The amount of surplus value which an employer 
may appropriate can be increased by the prolonga- 
tion of the working-day (absolute surplus value), 
or by the curtailment of the necessary labor time u 
{relative surplus value), which curtailment can be 
brought about by the increased productiveness of 

11 The necessary labor time, as noted above, is the number of 
hours required by the laborer to create products equal in value 
to the amount which he receives as wages. 



$6 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

the laborer, by the decreased cost of raw materials, 
machinery, etc., or by the decreased cost of the 
laborer's subsistence. 

Thus Marx claims that "the appropriation of 
unpaid labor is the basis of the capitalist mode of 
production and of the exploitation of the worker 
that occurs under it; that even if the capitalist 
buys the labor-power of his laborer at its full 
value as a commodity on the market, he yet ex- 
tracts more value from it than he paid for ; and 
that in the ultimate analysis this surplus value 
forms those sums of value from which are heaped 
up the constantly increasing masses of capital in 
the hands of the possessing classes." 12 

The Great Contradiction. In connection with 
the subject of surplus value, there arises a most 
interesting problem known as " The Great Contra- 
diction." Briefly stated, it is to the effect that if, 
as Marx claims, labor alone creates exchange value, 
hence, also, surplus value, and if it is through the 
appropriation of the surplus value that the capi- 
talists become wealthy, why is it that they are so 
eager to replace labor by means of machinery, 
which, according to Marx, creates no surplus value? 
Or to state it somewhat differently, how does 
Marx explain why a capitalist hiring much labor 
12 Engels, Socialism, Scientific and Utopian, p. 43. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 57 

and using very little machinery (called by Marx 
a "high composition of capital"} secures no more 
than the average rate of profits obtained by an 
employer who uses much machinery and very 
little labor (a " low composition of capital ")? 

In meeting this query Marx abandons his so- 
cially necessary labor theory of value, and contends 
that in actual circulation commodities exchange 
in accordance with what he calls their " price of 
production," i.e. the cost of their production plus 
the average rate of profit. The average rate of 
profit, so he claims, is the same for all capitals re- 
gardless of their composition, and depends upon 
the proportion existing between the whole volume 
of capital and the whole volume of surplus value 
created, the latter being distributed to all capital, 
constant as well as variable. As a consequence 
of the competition which exists between all capi- 
talists for as large a share of this amount of sur- 
plus value as they can obtain, all procure no more 
and no less than the average rate of profits, re- 
gardless of the composition of the capitals em- 
ployed. 13 

Marx's theory of surplus value depends directly 
upon his labor theory of value. If the latter is 

18 Cf. Bohm-Bawerk, op. cit., ch. 3; Marx, Capital, vol. 
iii., chs. 8-12. 



58 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

disproved, the former falls with it. Bohm-Bawerk, 
the eminent Austrian economist, has made a most 
careful analysis of these two theories in his ad- 
mirable volume, "Karl Marx and the Close of his 
System," and in concluding his discussion of the 
latter's theory of surplus value, 14 maintains that, 

(1) A theory of value is not concerned with the 
sum total of all commodities and the manner in 
which their differences are averaged out ; it has 
to do only with explaining their several exchange 
relations, i.e. the proportions in which separate 
commodities exchange for one another ; 

(2) Marx's law of value does not govern the 
movement of prices, nor "does it govern with 
undiminished authority the exchange of commod- 
ities in certain primary stages in which the change 
of value into ' prices of production ' had not yet 
been accomplished ; " and 

(3) In a complicated economic system the 
" prices of production " are not regulated by the 
Marxian law of value, which, through the " prices 
of production," governs the actual exchange rela- 
tions. Marx, on the other hand, claims that such 
is the case, since the total value of the commod- 
ities, determined by the law of value, in its turn, 
determines the total surplus value, the latter 

i* Chapter 3. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 59 

regulating the amount of the average profit and 
therefore the general rate of profit. 

(e) The Socialist Explanation of Crises. 

Growing out of the Marxian theory of surplus 
value is the socialist explanation of panics or 
business crises. It is maintained that inasmuch 
as labor creates all exchange value and receives 
only a small portion of it in return as wages, it 
necessarily follows that labor cannot purchase 
all that it produces. It is impossible for the 
capitalist class to consume all that remains, and 
as a consequence the surplus products accumulate, 
finally bringing about a state of over-production, 
in other words, a panic or a business depression. 
The possibility of over-production is further 
heightened by the anarchy of capitalistic indus- 
try, which induces each entrepreneur to produce as 
much as he is able with the idea of getting con- 
trol of as large a share of the market as possible. 
The antecedents of this theory are found in the 
writings of the Early English Socialists and also 
in those of Rodbertus, a German economist of 
note. 

The great objection to the socialist theory of 
crises is that it is impossible to explain all crises 
by means of the one cause of over-production, or, 



60 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

as it is sometimes called, "under-consumption." 
Panics may be monetary, financial, or industrial, 
and may occur because of any one of the following 
reasons or because of a combination of several of 
them : — 

(1) Lack of confidence. 

(2) The abuse or undue extension of credit, 

either by excessive bank credits or by 
inflated issues of currency. 

(3) The readjustment of conditions made neces- 

sary by inevitable changes in values or 
prices. 

(4) A general fall in prices. 

(5) A general change in prices due to changes 

in the monetary system. 

(6) Contraction of the circulating medium or 

an insufficient volume of money. 

(7) Railroad, land, or other kinds of specu- 

lation. 

(8) War. 

(9) Failure of crops, bad seasons, etc. 

The position of the socialists is also attacked 
on the ground that if panics are caused only by 
over-production, or under-consumption, of com- 
modities, how, then, is it possible for a panic to pass 
away? A very large number of those commod- 
ities, which at such times, according to the 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 6 1 

socialists, have been over-produced, are of an 
indestructible and permanent nature and cannot 
rot away or wear out ; the workers are unem- 
ployed and have no funds with which to make 
purchases ; the industrial establishments are in- 
active and need no supplies ; how, then, can the 
accumulated stores be disposed of in order that 
a demand for them may arise, thus bringing about 
a revival of industry ? 

(/) The Right of Labor to the Full Product. 

Scientific socialists maintain that as labor 
creates all exchange values, it should receive 
them ; in other words, it should receive its full 
product. They claim that under the wage sys- 
tem, or capitalism, such a thing is impossible, be- 
cause, as has been explained, the capitalist appro- 
priates a part of these values (surplus values) in 
the form of rent, interest, and profits. With the 
collective ownership and operation of industry, 
however, there would be no capitalist class, no 
surplus values, and no rent, interest, or profits, 
thus making it possible for labor to receive its full 
product. 

The socialists are opposed to the payment of 
rent, interest, and profits. They ridicule the 
justification of the payment of interest as a re- 



62 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

ward for superintendence, or as a payment for 
services, for risks taken, for abstinence, or for 
waiting. They claim that rent, as a portion of 
surplus value, is an unjust charge for a natural 
agent, which agent, land, has been appropriated 
by the individual and made his private property 
to the exclusion of society. They contend that 
profits are nothing more nor less than the fruits of 
robbery or expropriation on the part of the capi- 
talists. 

In discussing the right to the full product, one 
must be careful to distinguish between it and 
(1) the Right to Subsistence, and (2) the Right to 
Labor. The former is commonly accepted, and is 
exemplified in our poor laws, asylums, poorhouses, 
etc. The Right to Labor may be further subdi- 
vided into (1) the Right to Search for Work, 
which all civilized countries grant to their citi- 
zens, and (2) the Right to Demand Work, which 
means that any one without employment may de- 
mand and receive it at the hands of the govern- 
ment. This latter privilege is not recognized by 
any country. 

The claim of the scientific socialists that 
labor should receive its full product is attacked 
in the first place on the ground that it is based 
upon a false premise, i.e. the labor theory of 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 63 

value. Secondly, it is argued that it is impossible 
to determine accurately what the full product of 
labor amounts to. Approximation alone is pos- 
sible, but approximation would not give labor its 
full product, and consequently would result in 
partial exploitation. Thirdly, the total product 
of a number of individuals working together is 
always greater than the total product of the same 
individuals working separately. To whom does 
the extra product belong, — to the workers, to 
society, which has made their cooperation possible, 
or to the capitalist who has brought them to- 
gether with sufficient land and capital so as to 
make possible the production of this extra amount 
of wealth ? 

(#) The Concentration of Industry and the Cen- 
tralization of Wealth. 

The scientific socialists claim that in the capi- 
talistic system of production there is ever present 
a tendency towards a concentration of industry 
and a centralization of wealth. They hold that 
industrial history discloses the fact that the unit 
of business organization has steadily increased in 
size as it has evolved from the individual entre- 
preneur through the partnership and the joint 
stock company to the modern corporation. The 



64 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

market also has widened, growing from a local 
into a national, and finally into an international, 
market. This fact, together with the greater 
cost of modern processes, has necessitated vast 
accumulations of capital in order to carry on the 
production of wealth. 

As the result of competition between corpora- 
tions engaged in similar lines of industry, trusts 
have been formed. Further competition between 
these trusts, the difficulty of reinvesting divi- 
dends, and the recognition of the economies of 
combination and of large-scale production have 
caused larger trusts, or holding companies, to be 
organized, until to-day, according to the socialists, 
the more important branches of industry are cen- 
tralized in the hands of a small group of capital- 
ists. Along with this concentration of industry 
goes the centralization of wealth. This tendency 
is said to prevail in all fields, in manufacturing, 
agriculture, and mining, as well as in the whole- 
sale and retail business. This concentration is 
expected to continue until all lines of industry 
have been fully concentrated and thoroughly 
organized. 15 A few capitalists will then own those 
things which all of society uses for the purpose of 
supplying its needs. The socialists claim that this 

15 Concentration of control, as well as concentration of owner- 
ship, is taken into consideration by the socialists. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 65 

state of affairs cannot long exist, and that in order 
to safeguard the interests of its citizens, society 
will be forced to undertake the collective ownership 
and operation of those industries. 

The critics of Marxian economics declare that 
the theory of the concentration of industry is not 
in accord with the facts of the business world. 
In the first place, petty industrial enterprises and 
establishments persist and even increase in num- 
ber. Secondly, in agriculture large-scale farming 
has failed, as is shown by the breaking up of the 
plantations of the South and the bonanza wheat 
farms of the West and Northwest. Intensive 
cultivation has proved its superiority over exten- 
sive cultivation. Thirdly, in the retail trade 
small stores persist in spite of the growth in the 
size and number of department stores. Fourthly, 
socialists exaggerate the tendency towards con- 
centration. Lastly, an individual corporation, if 
well organized and satisfactorily managed, can 
compete successfully with a trust or holding com- 
pany provided the latter obtains no unfair advan- 
tage in the form of rebates, railway tariffs, or 
political influence. The tendency in the develop- 
ment of governmental legislation is in direct line 
with the policy of providing equality of oppor- 
tunity among competitors in all fields. 



66 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

(Ji) The Theory of Increasing Misery. 

One of the fundamentals of the Marxian system 
which played a very prominent part in the earlier 
years of the socialist propaganda, but which to-day 
has been abandoned by a number of scientific 
socialists, is the theory of increasing misery. 

Marx declared that along with the concentration 
of industry the rich grow richer, while the oppres- 
sion, servitude, degradation, and exploitation of 
the workers steadily increase. The latter sink 
more and more deeply into slavery, ignorance, and 
bestiality, and become more miserable, absolutely 
as well as relatively. But with this condition of 
affairs there "grows the revolt of the working 
class, a class always increasing in numbers, and 
disciplined, united, organized by the very mech- 
anism of the process of capitalist production 
itself," 16 until finally the workers rise against their 
misery and degradation, overthrow the capitalist 
class and bring about socialism. 

The explanation of the promulgation of this 
theory by Marx is found in the economic and 
social conditions existing in Europe during his life- 
time. The changing forms of industry had thrown 
thousands of men, women, and children out of 

16 Capital, vol. i., pp. 836-837. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 6? 

work ; poverty, bestiality, and discontent were 
present on all sides ; labor laws were of scant im- 
portance ; trades-unions were weak ; and deplor- 
able conditions existed among the workers in the 
factories and upon the farms. 

This theory, however, has been abandoned by 
the leaders of the socialist movement because they 
have realized, first, that it is impossible for an 
oppressed, enslaved, and degraded class to free it- 
self (one cannot expect " political omnipotence to 
result from economic impotence "), and secondly, 
that the conditions of the workers have become in- 
creasingly more satisfactory through the activities 
of trade-unions and cooperative enterprises, and 
as a result of labor and factory laws, the widening 
sphere of governmental activities, welfare work on 
the part of the employers, and various other in- 
fluences. It is still accepted, however, by a large 
number of socialists in all countries, and is used 
by them as one of the most valuable and telling 
arguments of their propaganda. 

(i) The Catastrophe Theory. 

The catastrophe theory merely explains the 
manner in which Marx thought that capitalistic 
society would be supplanted by socialism. In 
brief, it may be stated as a belief that the present 



68 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

order of things is destined to disappear in a grand 
catastrophe. 

As has already been explained, Marx claimed 
that economic development must necessarily lead 
to the complete concentration of industry on the 
one hand, and to the increasing misery of the 
workers on the other. Capitalism creates more 
wealth than it can consume, surplus values ac- 
cumulate, and as the years pass panics will occur 
with increasing frequency. Finally a time comes 
when the powers of production can expand no 
further under a capitalistic system ; vast armies of 
unemployed oppressed workers will exist, com- 
posed of men who will necessarily be driven by 
their increasing misery to overthrow capitalism 
and inaugurate the cooperative commonwealth. 
In the words of Marx, "the monopoly of capital 
becomes a fetter upon the mode of production 
which has sprung up and flourished along with, 
and under it. Centralization of the means of pro- 
duction and socialization of labor at last reach a 
point where they become incompatible with their 
capitalist integument. This integument is burst 
asunder. The knell of capitalist private property 
sounds. The expropriators are expropriated." 17 
Thus Marx thought that the change would be in 
17 Capital, vol. L, p. 837. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 69 

the nature of a social revolution, a sudden and 
complete change from capitalism to socialism. 

The great objection to this theory is that it in- 
duces those who believe in it to look forward only 
to the ideal socialist state and thus neglect to 
attempt the removal of the evils of our present 
system. It encourages them to hope that things 
will grow increasingly worse so that socialism 
may come all the more quickly. 

Any discussion of this theory resolves itself 
into a controversy between those who believe in 
revolutionary and those who believe in evolu- 
tionary changes. The tendency to-day among 
scientific socialists is away from a belief in this 
theory. This is because they feel that any changes 
in capitalism tending towards socialism must be 
gradual and evolutionary in character. Some 
also recognize the fact that in spite of all proph- 
ecies to the contrary, the forces of production 
have not outgrown the present needs of society 
and that capitalism still has many years of life 
ahead of it. Consequently, the socialists are lay- 
ing more and more stress upon the necessity of 
removing present-day evils. They seem to have 
learned from experience that they cannot propose 
only a negative programme, but that they must 
offer something positive, something constructive in 



70 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

nature. This change of position is shown by their 
more favorable attitude in later years towards 
such matters as trade-unionism, cooperative en- 
terprises, labor and factory legislation, working- 
men's insurance, and municipal and government 
ownership. 

Classification of Scientific Socialists. 

There are two general groups of scientific so- 
cialists : (1) Orthodox Marxists or Marxians, and 
(2) Revisionists. 

(1) The Orthodox Marxists or Marxians accept 
in toto the theories of Marx, as originally formu- 
lated by him, and attack very bitterly all who 
suggest changes or modifications of any sort. 
They oppose reform or remedial measures, such 
as municipal and government ownership, labor and 
factory legislation, trade-union activities, and the 
like. They look forward only to a socialist re- 
gime, and can see nothing good either in capitalism 
or in anything other than socialism. They are 
revolutionary rather than evolutionary in their 
point of view. This group is rapidly decreasing 
in importance in all countries. In the United 
States it is represented by the almost extinct So- 
cialist Labor Party and by the " Impossibilists " 
of later years. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS Jl 

(2) Revisionism is a comparatively late move- 
ment and dates approximately from the publica- 
tion of a series of articles by Edward Bernstein 
in Die Neue Zeit in 1898, later issued in book 
form under the title of " Die Voraussetzungen des 
Sozialismus und die Aufgaben der Sozialdemo- 
kratie." 18 The revisionists accept the doctrines 
of Marx as a basis for their economic and political 
ideas, but hold that revision is necessary in many 
respects. This is especially true of the theory of 
the concentration of industry, the theory of in- 
creasing misery, the catastrophe theory, and the 
economic interpretation of history with its accom- 
panying doctrine of the class struggle. They 
still desire and agitate for the socialistic coopera- 
tive commonwealth, but lay main stress upon 
practical and immediate ameliorative measures. 
Unlike the Marxians, they claim that the work 
being done by the socialists in trade-unions and 
cooperative societies and by their active partici- 
pation in the affairs of capitalistic governments 
is of paramount importance. They hold that so- 
cialism can come only as the result of a long 
series of evolutionary changes, and that it is ad- 
visable, therefore, to improve present living and 

18 Translated by Edith C. Harvey under the title of Evolu- 
tionary Socialism. 



72 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

working conditions so as to prepare the workers 
for its coming. 

The spread of revisionism in Europe, especially 
in Germany, has not been very rapid. On the 
other hand, the socialist movement in the United 
States is almost wholly of a revisionist or oppor- 
tunist character. 

The revisionists may be further subdivided into 
(1) those socialists who make use of all oppor- 
tunities, even to the extent of compromising with 
other parties in order to increase the socialist fol- 
lowing, who seem to think only of the immediate 
present and who lose sight entirely of the socialist 
ideal of a cooperative commonwealth; and (2) 
those who do not compromise with other parties, 
but who use reform measures only as a means to 
an end, the end being socialism. 

By some, syndicalism is classed as scientific 
socialism, by others as anarchism, and by still 
others as a form of labos organization. It con- 
tains certain characteristics of all of these move- 
ments and yet, accurately speaking, it is not any 
of them. 

" Syndicalism, or the new unionism, is the most 
characteristic contribution made by France to the 
revolutionary working-class movement." It is 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 73 

confined for the most part to a rapidly growing 
and very active following in France and Italy, 
although a few adherents may be found in all 
countries. In brief, its creed is "that the working 
class must work out its own salvation by its own 
organs, by direct and not by deputed action, and 
that the syndicat or labor union, chief of these 
organs, is to be regarded not merely as an instru- 
ment for securing partial alleviations of the exist- 
ing capitalistic system or as a recruiting-ground 
for socialist parties, but as itself the instrument 
of revolution and the cell of the future social or- 
ganism." 19 Its followers deplore the degeneracy of 
the modern socialist movement which they claim 
has become bourgeois in character. They are op- 
posed to socialist participation in parliamentary 
government, and hence object to political action 
as a means of obtaining their demands. Their 
most favored weapon is the general strike. They 
are pessimists in that they ignore the immense 
progress made by humanity, and insist that the 
workers are in the most desperate straits, from 
which they can be rescued only by radical and 
revolutionary measures. They hold to the harsh- 
est interpretation of the class struggle, and object 
to the participation of "intellectuals" in the labor 
1 9 Skelton, Socialism, pp. 267-268. 



74 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

movement. They claim that as there is no saviour 
on earth or in heaven, the workers alone, through 
their unions or syndicats, must achieve their eman- 
cipation from the thraldom of capitalism. The 
syndicalists call upon the unions to "take over 
whatever functions they can snatch from the em- 
ployer and from the state, preparing for the day 
when they will supersede both entirely," and will 
thus be able to inaugurate the reign of free coop- 
erative labor, by means of which a multitude of 
loosely federated autonomous unions will be estab- 
lished, the members of which will labor in the 
workshops without masters. Thus syndicalism 
differs "from pure and simple trade-unionism in 
its revolutionary aims and its adherence to the 
class struggle doctrine, from anarchism in its ex- 
clusively proletarian appeal and its stress upon con- 
structive measures, and from orthodox socialism in 
its distrust of political action and counter-emphasis 
on purely proletarian weapons and institutions." * 

REFERENCES 

i. Christian Socialism. 

See especially the works of Kingsley and Maurice 
as quoted in the bibliography. 
Adderley. Meditations for Christian Socialists. 
Barker. British Socialism. Ch. 28. 

20 Skelton, Socialism, p. 269. 



1 DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS ?$ 

Barry. Christianity and Socialism. 
Behrends. Socialism and Christianity. 
Carter. Christian Socialism in England. 
Clifford. Socialism and the Teaching of Christ. 

Fabian Tract, no. 78. 
Ely. Socialism and Social Reform. Part 1, ch. 9. 

* French and German Socialism. Ch. 16. 
Gibbins. English Social Reformers. Ch. 5. 
Gilman. Socialism and the American Spirit. Ch. 7. 
Gohre. The Evangelical-Social Movement in Ger- 
many. 

Headlam. Christian Socialism. Fabian Tract, no. 42. 

Herron. The Christian State. 

Hughes. The Manliness of Christ. 

Kaufmann. Charles Kingsley, Christian Socialist. 

* Christian Socialism. 

Laveleye. The Socialism of To-day. Chs. 7-8. 

Masterman. F. D. Maurice. 

Mathews. The Social Teachings of Jesus. 

Noel. Socialism in Church History. 

Peabody. Jesus Christ and the Social Question. 

* Rae. Contemporary Socialism. Ch. 7. 

* Rauschenbusch. Christianity and the Social Crisis. 
Sprague. Socialism from Genesis to Revelation. 
Stoddart. The New Socialism. Ch. 12. 

* Stubbs. Charles Kingsley and the Christian Socialist 

Movement. 
A Creed for Christian Socialists. 
Christ and Economics. 
Woodward. Christian Socialism in England. 

Catholic Christian Socialism. 
Ely. French and German Socialism. Pp. 257-262. 

* Kaufmann. Christian Socialism. Ch. 5. 

* Laveleye. The Socialism of To-day. Ch. 8. 
Nitti. Catholic Socialism. 

Soderni. Socialism and Catholicism. 



f6 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

3. Fabian Socialism. 

Ely. Socialism and Social Reform. Appendix II. 

* Fabian Essays. Especially pp. xi-xli. 

* Kirkup. History of Socialism. Pp. 399-400. 
Shaw. Fabianism and the Empire. 

The Fabian Society; Its Early History. Fabian 
Tract, no. 41. 

4. State Socialism. 

Barker. British Socialism. Ch. 32. 
Bryce. A Short Study of State Socialism. 
Dawson. Bismarck and State Socialism. 
Ely. French and German Socialism. Ch. 15. 
Socialism and Social Reform. Part 1, ch. 9. 
Graham. Socialism, New and Old. Chs. 9-12. 
Kaufmann. Christian Socialism. Ch. 7. 

* Kautsky. The Class Struggle. Pp. 109-112. 

* Kirkup. History of Socialism. Ch. 11. 
Laveleye. The Socialism of To-day. Ch. 12. 

* Rae. Contemporary Socialism. Chs. 6, 11. 
Smith. Economic Aspects of State Socialism. 
Vail. Modern Socialism. Ch. 14, sees. 5, 14. 

5. Utopian Socialism. 

(a) Sources. 

See especially the writings of Aristotle, F. U. 
Adams, Babeuf, Bacon, Bellamy, Blanc, Cabet, 
Campanella, Fourier, Harrington, More, Morris, 
Owen, Plato, Saint-Simon, and Weitling. 

(6) History of Utopian Socialism, 

Barker. The Political Thought of Plato and Aristotle. 
Bonar. Philosophy and Political Economy, etc. 

Book 1, chs. 1-2; book 2, chs. 1, 4. 
Booth. Robert Owen, etc. 
Saint-Simon and Saint-Simonism. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS yj 

Buonarroti. History of Babeuf's Conspiracy. 

* Ely. French and German Socialism. Chs. 2-6. 
Flower. The Century of Sir Thomas More. 
Gibbins. English Social Reformers. Ch. 2. 
Graham. Socialism, New and Old. Chs. 2-3. 

* Guthrie. Socialism before the French Revolution. 

Chs. 1-5. 
Holyoake. Life and Last Days of Robert Owen. 
Jones. The Life, Times, and Labors of Robert Owen. 

* Kaupmann. Utopias, etc. 

Kirkup. History of Socialism. Chs. 2-4. 
Packard. Life of Robert Owen. 

* Podmore. Robert Owen. 

Sargent. Robert Owen and his Social Philosophy. 

Seebohm. The Oxford Reformers. 

Woolsey. Communism and Socialism. Chs. 2-4. 

(c) Utopian Socialism and Scientific Socialism Con- 

trasted. 

* Engelb. Socialism, Utopian and Scientific. 

Landmarks of Scientific Socialism. 
Ensor. Modern Socialism. Ch. 1. 
Guyot. Socialistic Fallacies. Book 1; book 2, chs. 

1,3. 
Mills. The Struggle for Existence. Ch. 19. 

* Plechanoff. Anarchism and Socialism. Ch. 1. 

* Skelton. Socialism. Ch. 4. 

Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 

31-39. 
Spargo. Socialists; Who They Are and What They 

Stand For. Ch. 2. 
* Socialism. Pp. 16-53. 

Substance of Socialism. Part 1. 

(d) Utopian Experiments. 

Ballou. History of the Hopedale Community. 
Bole. The Harmony Society. 



78 ESSENTIALS OE SOCIALISM 

Broome. The Last Days of the Ruskin Cooperative 
Association. 

Codman. Brook Farm; Historic and Personal Me- 
moirs. 

* Cullen. Adventures in Socialism. 
Eastlake. Oneida Community. 
Frothingham. George Ripley. Chs. 3-4. 

* Hilquit. History of Socialism in the United States. 

Part 1. 

* Hinds. American Communities, etc. 

Kautsky. Communism in Central Europe in the 

Time of the Reformation. 
Kent. Cooperative Communities in the United States. 
Lockwood. The New Harmony Communities. 
Nordhoff. The Communistic Societies of the United 

States. 
Notes. History of American Socialisms. 
Perkins and Wick. History of the Amana Society. 
Randall. History of the Zoar Society. 
Shaw. Icaria. 

Sotheran. Horace Greeley, etc. 
Swift. Brook Farm; Its Members, Scholars, and 

Visitors. 

6. Scientific Socialism. 

(a) General References. 

The references to the subject of scientific social- 
ism are without number. Among the volumes of a 
more general and comprehensive nature the most 
satisfactory are the following: — 

Cohen. Socialism for Students. 

Ely. Socialism and Social Reform. 

Flint. Socialism. 

Hilquit. Socialism in Theory and Practice. 

Kirkup. History of Socialism. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 79 

Rae. Contemporary Socialism. 

Skelton. Socialism. 

Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. 

Spargo. Socialism. 

Socialists; Who They Are and What They Stand 
For. 

Tugan-Baranowsky. Modern Socialism in its His- 
torical Development. 

(6) Sources. 

For the sources of the principles of scientific 
socialism, consult the writings of Bebel, Engels, 
Kautsky, Lassalle, Liebknecht, Marx, Rodbertus, 
and Vandervelde. 

(c) For a general discussion of the principles of scientific 
socialism see the following : — 

Aveling. The Students' Marx. 

* Boudin. The Theoretical System of Karl Marx. 
Ely. Socialism and Social Reform. 

Ensor. Modern Socialism. 

* Flint. Socialism. 

Gonner. The Social Philosophy of Rodbertus. 
Laveleye. Socialism of To-day. Chs. 3-5. 
Macdonald. The Socialist Movement. 
Menger. The Right to the Whole Produce of Labor. 

Chs. 8-10. 
Plechanoff. Anarchism and Socialism. Ch. 2. 

* Rae. Contemporary Socialism. Chs. 3-4. 

* Skelton. Socialism. Chs. 5-7. 

* Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. 

* Spargo. Socialism. 

The Common Sense of Socialism. 

Sidelights on Contemporary Socialism. 

Capitalist and Laborer. 
Stoddart. The New Socialism. Ch. 16. 
Tugan-Baranowsky. Modern Socialism in its His- 
torical Development. 



80 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

Untermann. Marxian Economics. 

Woolsey. Communism and Socialism. Pp. 160-181. 

(d) Criticism by Non-socialists. 

* Bohm-Bawerk. Karl Marx and the Close of his 

System. 

Capital and Interest. 

The Positive Theory of Capital. 
Graham. Socialism, New and Old. Ch. 4. 
Guyot. Socialistic Fallacies. Book 3. 
Kaufmann. Utopias, etc. Chs. 11-14. 

Socialism. Book 2, ch. 6. 

* Simkhovitch. Marxism versus Socialism. 

* Veblen. The Socialist Economics of Karl Marx and 

his Followers. 

(e) History of Scientific Socialism. 

Bernstein. Ferdinand Lassalle as a Social Reformer. 
Dawson. German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassalle. 
Ely. French and German Socialism. Chs. 9-12, 14. 
Kaufmann. Utopias, etc. Chs. 11-14. 

* Kirkup. History of Socialism. Chs. 5-7. 
Liebknecht. Karl Marx. 

* Russell. German Social Democracy. 

* Spargo. Karl Marx ; His Life and Work. 

The Marx he Knew. 

(f) The Appeal of Socialism to All Nations and to All 

Classes. 

Engels and Marx. The Communist Manifesto. Pp. 
41-42. 

* Hunter. Socialists at Work. Preface. Ch. 10. 

* Kautsky. The Class Struggle. Pp. 202-210. 
Laf argue. Socialism and the Intellectuals. 
Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 

175-223. 

* Stoddart. The New Socialism. Ch. 15. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 8 1 

(g) The Evolution of Society. 

1. As interpreted by socialists. 
Bax. The Religion of Socialism. 

* Engels. Landmarks of Scientific Socialism. Preface 

by A. Lewis. 
Ferri. Socialism and Modern Science. Part 2. 

* Kautsky. The Class Struggle. Pp. 9-18. 
Laf argue. The Evolution of Property, etc. 

* Macdonald. The Socialist Movement. Chs. 1-2. 
Mills. The Struggle for Existence. Chs. 1-11. 
Richardson. Industrial Problems. Pp. 226-229. 
Vail. Modern Socialism. Ch. 3. 

Principles of Scientific Socialism. Ch. 1, 

2. As interpreted by non-socialists. 

* Beard. The Industrial Revolution. 
Bucher. Industrial Evolution. 

* Ely. The Evolution of Industrial Society. Chs. 1-5. 
Hobson. Evolution of Modern Capitalism. Chs. 1-3. 
Kidd. Social Evolution. 

* Kirkup. History of Socialism. Ch. 12. 

Le Rossignol. Orthodox Socialism. Ch. 9. 
Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 
71-74. 

(h) The Economic Interpretation of History and the 
Class Struggle. 

1. Statement and discussion by socialists. 

* Boudin. The Theoretical System of Karl Marx. Chs. 

2-3. 
Bernstein. Evolutionary Socialism. Pp. 6-28. 
Engels. Feuerbach, etc. 

* Socialism, Utopian and Scientific. Chs. 2-3. 
Engels and Marx. The Communist Manifesto. In- 
troduction; Part 1. 

G 



82 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

* Ghent. Mass and Class. Especially chs. 1-2. 

Socialism and Success. Ch. 5. 
Hilquit. Socialism in Theory and Practice. Part 1, 

ch. 6. 
Kaufmann. What is Socialism ? Ch. 5. 

* Kautsky. Social Revolution. Pp. 37-65. 

Ethics and the Materialist Conception of History. 
Labriola. Essays on the Materialistic Conception of 

History. 
Laf argue. Social and Philosophical Studies. 
La Monte. Socialism, Positive and Negative. Pp. 

25-33, 46-56. 
London. The War of the Classes. Ch. 1. 
Macdonald. The Socialist Movement. Pp. 141- 

149. 
Marx. Poverty of Philosophy. Ch. 2, sees. 1-3. 
Value, Price, and Profit. Ch. 14. 
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Econ- 
omy. 
Mills. The Struggle for Existence. Chs. 21, 33. 
Richardson. Industrial Problems. Part 1, ch. 11. 
Spargo. The Substance of Socialism. Parts 1, 3. 

* Socialism. Chs. 4, 6. 

Socialists; Who They Are, etc. Chs. 6-12. 
Untermann. Science and Revolution. 
Vail. Principles of Scientific Socialism. Ch. 13, sec. 2. 

2. Statement and discussion by non-socialists. 
Bonar. Philosophy and Political Economy, etc. 

Book 5, chs. 1-2. 
Ely. Evolution of Industrial Society. Part 1, ch. 4. 
Guthrie. Socialism Before the French Revolution. 

Pp. 31-33. 
Guyot. Socialistic Fallacies. Book 3, ch. 8; book 8. 

* Le Rossignol. Orthodox Socialism. Chs. 7-8. 

* Seligman. The Economic Interpretation of History. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 83 

* Skelton. Socialism. Ch. 5. 

Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 
87-98. 

3. Application of the doctrine to economic and his- 

torical studies. 
Lewis. The Rise of the American Proletarian. 
Loria. The Economic Foundations of Society. 

* Simons. Class Struggles in America. 
Untermann. The World's Revolutions. 

* Veblen. The Theory of Business Enterprise. 

4. Other methods of interpreting history. 
Buckle. History of Civilization in England. 
Patten. The Development of English Thought. 
Robertson. Buckle and his Critics. 

(i) The Labor Theory of Value. 

1. Statement and discussion by socialists. 

Aveling. The Students' Marx. Parts 1-2. 

* Bernstein. Evolutionary Socialism. Pp. 28-40. 

* Boudin. The Theoretical System of Karl Marx. Chs. 

4-6. 
Fabian Essays. Pp. 9-15. 
Hyndman. Economics of Socialism. Chs. 2, 7. 
Marx. Poverty of Philosophy. Ch. 1. 

* Value, Price, and Profit. Ch. 6. 

* Capital. Vols. 1, 2, 3. 

Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. 
Chs. 1-2. 
Mills. The Struggle for Existence. Ch. 25. 

* Spargo. Socialism. Ch. 8. 
Untermann. Marxian Economics. Ch. 14. 
Vail. Modern Socialism. Ch. 5. 

Principles of Scientific Socialism. Ch. 2 ; ch. 13, 
sec. 1. 



84 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

2. Statement and discussion by non-socialists. 

* Bohm-Bawerk. Karl Marx and the Close of his 

System. 
Kaufmann. Socialism. Book 1, chs. 1-2. 

* Le Rossignol. Orthodox Socialism. Chs. 2-3. 
Naquet. Collectivism and Socialism. Book 1 ; book 

2, ch. 1. 

* Skelton. Socialism. Ch. 6. 

(j) The Theory of Surplus Value. 

1. Statement and discussion by socialists. 
Aveling. The Students' Marx. Parts 3-5. 
Boudin. The Theoretical System of Karl Marx. Ch. 6. 
Hyndman. The Economics of Socialism. Ch. 3. 

La Monte. Socialism, Positive and Negative. Pp. 
46-56. 

* Marx. Capital. Vols. 1, 2, 3. 

* Value, Price, and Profit. Chs. 7, 8, 11. 

* Richardson. Industrial Problems. Part 1, chs. 1-4. 

* Spargo. Socialism. Ch. 8. 
Untermann. Marxian Economics. Ch. 15. 
Vail. Principles of Scientific Socialism. Ch. 3. 

2. Statement and discussion by non-socialists. 

* Bohm-Bawerk. Karl Marx and the Close of his Sys- 

tem. Pp. 21-46, 60-124. 
Dawson. German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassalle. 

Ch. 4. 
Hobson. The Economics of Distribution. Ch. 10. 
Le Rossignol. Orthodox Socialism. Ch. 4. 

* Skelton. Socialism. Ch. 6. 

(k) The Socialist Explanation of Crises. 
1. Statement and discussion by socialists. 
Bebel. Woman Under Socialism. Pp. 235 ft*. 

* Bernstein. Evolutionary Socialism. Pp. 73-94. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 85 

Engels. Socialism, Utopian and Scientific. Pp. 45 ff. 
Engels and Marx. The Communist Manifesto. Pp. 

21 ff. 
Gronlund. The Cooperative Commonwealth. Ch. 2. 

* Hyndman. Commercial Crises of the Nineteenth Cen- 

tury. 
Economics of Socialism. Ch. 5. 

* Richardson. Industrial Problems. Part 1, ch. 8. 
Vail. Modern Socialism. Ch. 11. 

Principles of Scientific Socialism. Ch. 11. 

2. Discussion by non-socialists. 
Jones. Economic Crises. Ch. 5. 

* Le Rossignol. Orthodox Socialism. Ch. 6. 

* Skelton. Socialism. Pp. 166-171. 

3. Other methods of explaining crises. 

Burton. Financial Crises and Periods of Industrial 

and Commercial Depression. 
Carey. Financial Crises ; Their Causes and Effects. 

* Jones. Economic Crises. 

Pratt. The Work of Wall street. Ch. 20. 

4. Excellent bibliographies on this subject are to be 

found in Burton and also in Jones, supra. 

(I) The Right to the Full Product of Labor. 
1. Statement and criticism. 

Anonymous. The Case Against Socialism. Pp. 298- 
306. 

* Menger. The Right to the Full Produce of Labor. 

* Skelton. Socialism. Pp. 200-207. 

(m) The Increasing Concentration of Industry. 
1. Statement and discussion by socialists. 



86 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

Blatchford. Britain for the British. Chs. 1-6. 

* Boudin. The Theoretical System of Karl Marx. Chs. 

8-9. 
Fabian Essays. Pp. 56-93. 
Ghent. Benevolent Feudalism. Chs. 2, 4. 
Gronlund. The Cooperative Commonwealth. Ch. 3. 

* Kampfpmeyer. Tendency of Economic Development. 

* Marx. Capital. Vol. 1, ch. 25. 

Meyers. History of the Great American Fortunes. 
Mills. The Struggle for Existence. Ch. 34. 
Richardson. Industrial Problems. Part 1, ch. 5. 
Simons. The American Farmer. Book 2, ch. 4. 

* Spargo. The Substance of Socialism. Pp. 85 ff. 

Socialism. Ch. 5. 

* Vandervelde. Collectivism and Industrial Evolution. 

Part 1. 

2. Statement by non-socialists. 

Ely. Evolution of Industrial Society. Part 2, chs. 4-6. 

* Monopolies and Trusts. 

Hobson. Evolution of Modern Capitalism. Chs. 4-6. 
Jenks. The Trust Problem. 

* Kirkup. The History of Socialism. Ch. 14. 
Lloyd. Wealth against Commonwealth. 
Macrosty. The Trust Movement in Great Britain. 

Trusts and the State. 
Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 

74-84. 
Spahr. An Essay on the Present Distribution of 

Wealth in the United States. 

* Stoddart. The New Socialism. Ch. 1, sec. 2. 
Youngman. The Economic Causes of Great Fortunes. 

3. Criticism. 

* Bernstein. Evolutionary Socialism. Pp. 40-73. 
Guyot. Socialistic Fallacies. Books 4-5. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 87 

* Simkhovitch. Marxism versus Socialism. 

* Skelton. Socialism. Pp. 155-163. 

(n) The Theory of Increasing Misery. 

1. Statement and discussion by socialists. 

* Benson. Socialism Made Plain. 

Ghent. Socialism and Success. Chs. 1, 5. 

Benevolent Feudalism. Ch. 4. 
Hunter. Poverty. 

* Kautsky. The Class Struggle. Pp. 172-184. 
Marx. The Poverty of Philosophy. Ch. 2, sec. 5. 

Capital. Vol. 1, chs. 10, 15, 32. 
Vail. Modern Socialism. Ch. 12. 

Principles of Scientific Socialism. Chs. 6, 7; Ch. 13, 
sec. 3. 

2. Criticism. 

Adams and Sumner. Labor Problems. Book 2, ch. 13. 
Anonymous. The Case Against Socialism. Pp. 268- 
292. 

* Bernstein. Evolutionary Socialism. Pp. 40-54. 
Ensor. Modern Socialism. Ch. 13. 

Guyot. Socialistic Fallacies. Book 4. 

* Herron. The Day of Judgment. 

* Kampffmeyer. Tendency of Economic Development. 
Mallock. The Nation as a Business Firm. 

* Simkhovitch. Marxism versus Socialism. 
Skelton. Socialism. Pp. 146-154. 

Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 
84-86. 

* Stoddart. The New Socialism. Ch. 1, sec. 2; ch. 2. 
(0) The Catastrophe Theory. 

1. Statement and discussion by socialists. 

* Boudin. The Theoretical System of Karl Marx. Chs. 

9-10. 
Marx. Capital. Vol. 1, ch. 32. 



88 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

2. Criticism. 

Guyot. Socialistic Fallacies. Book 6. 

Hereon. The Day of Judgment. 

Kampffmeyer. Tendency of Economic Development. 

* Le Rossignol. Orthodox Socialism. Ch. 9. 

* Skelton. Socialism. Pp. 171-176. 
Spargo. Socialism. Pp. 324-328. 

Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 
86-87. 

* Stoddart. The New Socialism. Ch. 1, sec. 1. 

(p) Rent. Interest Profits. 

1. Position of the socialists. 

* Blatchford. Merrie England. Ch. 7. 
Fabian Essays. Pp. 1-9. 

Hyndman. The Economics of Socialism. Ch. 6. 

* Kautsky. The Class Struggle. Pp. 52-55. 
Marx. Capital. Vols. 1, 2, 3. 

Poverty of Philosophy. Ch. 2, sec. 4. 

Value, Price, and Profit. 
Mills. The Struggle for Existence. Ch. 28. 
Untermann. Marxian Economics. Chs. 17-18. 

* Vail. Modern Socialism. Ch. 6. 

Principles of Scientific Socialism. Ch. 8. 

2. Criticism. 

Bohm-Bawerk. The Positive Theory of Capital. 
Book 6, ch. 10. 

* Cassell. The Nature and Necessity of Interest. 

(q) The Early English Socialists. 

See the writings of Bray, Godwin, Gray, Hall, 
Hodgskin, and Thompson. An excellent bibliog- 
raphy, as well as a most thorough discussion of their 
doctrines, is found in Menger, Right to the Whole 
Produce of Labor. See also : — 

* Eltzbacher. Anarchism. Ch. 3. 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOCIALISTS 89 

Marx. The Poverty of Philosophy. Appendix 2. 
Paul. William Godwin ; His Friends and Contempo- 
raries. 

(r) Revisionism. 

* Bernstein. Evolutionary Socialism. 
Ghent. Socialism and Success. Ch. 4. 
Herron. The Day of Judgment. 

* Kampffmeyer. Tendency of Economic Development. 

* Changes in the Theory, etc. 

* Liebknecht. No Compromise, No Political Trading. 
Macdonald. The Socialist Movement. Pp. 210-213. 
Politicus. The New Emancipation. 

* Skelton. Socialism. Pp. 175 ff., 250 ff. 
Spargo. Sidelights on Contemporary Socialism. 
Wells. New Worlds for Old. 

(s) Syndicalism. 

Practically all of the literature dealing with syn- 
dicalism has been written in a foreign language. 
See especially the works of Kritsky, Lagardelle, 
Leone, Louis, Mermeix, Prezzolini, and Sorel. See 
also : — 

* Skelton. Socialism. Pp. 267-282. 

Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 
98-130. 

* Stoddart. The New Socialism. Supplementary chap- 

ter on " Revolutionary Syndicalism.! J 

(t) The General Strike. 

Ensor. Modern Socialism. Ch. 14. 

Jaures. Studies in Socialism. Ch. 12. 

* Skelton. Socialism. Pp. 277-279. 

* Stoddart. The New Socialism. Pp. 199-217. 



CHAPTER V 

THE INEVITABILITY OF SOCIALISM 

Scientific socialists claim that socialism is in- 
evitable and that it will surely supplant capitalism 
just as capitalism supplanted feudalism. Among 
the more important arguments advanced in sup- 
port of their contention are the following : (1) the 
evolution of society ; (2) the class struggle; 
(3) the concentration of industry; (4) the theory 
of increasing misery ; (5) the unemployed prob- 
lem ; and (6) the economic contradictions of capi- 
talism. Much has already been written in the 
preceding pages concerning these propositions, yet 
a discussion of the inevitability of socialism neces- 
sitates a brief restatement in this connection. 

(1) The Evolution of Society. 

The scientific socialists claim that inasmuch as 
society has evolved from earlier stages into capi- 
talism, and inasmuch as it must continue to evolve, 
it will necessarily develop into a stage of socialism. 
This, they affirm, is true because the character or 
the stage of society is shaped or determined by 

90 



THE INEVITABILITY OF SOCIALISM 9 1 

the dominant mode of production and exchange ; 
and, as under capitalism the tools of industry are 
privately owned, but collectively used, the next 
stage must be one in which they will be collec- 
tively owned as well as collectively used. Such 
an arrangement would be possible only under 
socialism. 

In opposition to this position the critics of the 
socialist theories declare that the evolution of so- 
ciety need not inevitably result in socialism. It 
is impossible to prophesy what the future will 
bring forth. The next stage may possibly be one 
of " Benevolent Feudalism," one of voluntary 
cooperation, or one of private ownership with a 
very intensified form of collective control and 
operation. 

(2) The Class Struggle. 

The scientific socialists hold that all history is 
the history of class struggles, the character of the 
classes being determined by the prevailing eco- 
nomic conditions ; that throughout all history 
the workers have struggled up from slavery to 
their present position of political and partial eco- 
nomic freedom ; that with the passage of years 
all classes save two, — the workers and the capital- 
ists — have been abolished ; and that at the present 



92 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

time the contest lies between these two classes. 
With the growing class consciousness of the 
workers it is expected that there will come a 
united struggle on their part upon the political 
and the industrial fields against the capitalists, 
which can result only in a victory for the former 
and in the subsequent introduction of socialism. 

The opponents of this idea claim that the social- 
ists exaggerate the importance of the class strug- 
gle in the past, as well as in the present; that, 
although the middle class of yesterday is passing 
away, its place is being taken by a new middle 
class composed of well-paid foremen, superintend- 
ents, bookkeepers, managers, professional men, and 
the like ; that the workers and the capitalists may 
and do have common economic, political, social, 
and religious interests ; and that, although their 
interests may not be the same when it comes to 
a division of the products of industry, still, this 
one fact is not a sufficient reason for claiming 
that all history is the history of class struggles, 
or that the final outcome of such a clash of inter- 
ests must inevitably result in bringing about a 
regime of socialism. It is also argued that the 
socialist movement throughout the world has aban- 
doned the class struggle doctrine to a greater or 
less extent, depending upon the nation consid- 



THE INEVITABILITY OF SOCIALISM 93 

ered. 1 In addition to the above, certain critics 
also emphasize the fact that it is impossible to 
bring about a stage of society, whether it be 
socialism, capitalism, feudalism, or what not, by 
merely voting for it. 

(3) The Concentration of Industry. 

(4) The Theory of Increasing Misery. 

(5) The Unemployed Problem. 

These three propositions, although distinct from 
each other, are so closely related that they can be 
dealt with in a more satisfactory manner by con- 
sidering them in connection with each other. 

The scientific socialists hold that industry is 
being more and more concentrated, or "trusti- 
fied " ; that its control is becoming increasingly 
centralized in the hands of a few capitalists. 
This tendency is seen on all sides and in all 
industries. Along with this growing concentra- 
tion and centralization at the one pole comes an 
"accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, 
ignorance, brutality, mental degradation at the 
opposite pole." 2 The lot of the workers becomes 
increasingly more miserable. 

1 A. M. Simons, one of the most prominent of American 
socialists, has declared that ''The socialist movement in the 
United States, as in many other countries, has to a certain 
extent got away from the class struggle." — International 
Socialist Beview, viii., p. 180. 2 Capital, vol. i., p. 709. 



94 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

As industry expands, the capitalists are forced 
to find foreign markets in which to sell their sur- 
plus products. The workers who have produced 
these surplus commodities are unable to purchase 
them because they have received only a small por- 
tion of their product as wages. The search for 
foreign markets by the capitalists leads to a scram- 
ble for colonies, to a drumming up of trade in the 
Orient, and to "benevolent assimilation." But 
capitalism is a queer thing. "The bourgeoisie, 
by the rapid improvement of all instruments of 
production, by the immensely facilitated means of 
communication, draw all, even the most barba- 
rian, nations into civilization. ... It compels 
all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the 
bourgeois mode of production; it compels them 
to introduce what it calls civilization into their 
midst, i.e. to become bourgeois themselves. In 
a word, it creates a world after its own image." 3 
Thus other nations, which have been the con- 
sumers of the surplus products of capitalistic 
countries, become capitalistic themselves; they 
adopt modern methods of production and close 
their ports to foreign merchants and manufac- 
turers. Later they, too, become producers of sur- 
plus products and go in search of foreign markets. 
3 Communist Manifesto, pp. 18-19. 



THE INEVITABILITY OF SOCIALISM 95 

The scientific socialists declare that the periods of 
over-production will then come more and more 
frequently, panics will become the normal state 
of industry, an enormous unsolvable unemployed 
problem will arise, the workers will sink lower 
and lower in the scale of humanity, their condi- 
tion will become increasingly worse, until, driven 
into class conscious action, they will vote for 
socialism and thus force society to adopt the 
collective ownership and operation of industry. 4 
In meeting these arguments dealing with the 
inevitability of socialism, the critics show that 
capital does not concentrate in the manner, and 
certainly not as rapidly as, Marx predicted; that 
the lot of the worker is becoming more satisfac- 
tory, and that crises are not caused solely by the 
over-production of commodities. They also claim 
that organized production (the trusts) tends to do 
away with the problem of over-production (hence 
also with panics and the unemployed problem) 
through the adjustment of supply to demand. At 
the same time it also brings into existence new 
trades and businesses by cheapening materials and 
liberating capital, by setting free a portion of the 

4 For a more detailed discussion of the arguments offered 
against these contentions than is presented in this chapter, see 
Chapter V. 



96 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

labor supply which can be utilized in these new 
lines of industry, and by increasing the demand 
for new kinds of commodities. Laborers, who are 
displaced by the introduction of new processes or 
as the result of combination, are absorbed either 
partly or wholly by the new industries resulting 
therefrom or by the expansion of other industries. 
But even granting that industry were becoming 
more concentrated, it would still devolve upon the 
socialists to show that socialism would inevitably 
result. The outcome might possibly prove to be 
the further strengthening of capitalism or the 
birth of some stage other than that of socialism. 

It is also shown that with the greater bargain- 
ing power of the workers, obtained by means of 
their associations, political and industrial, they 
will be increasingly able to demand and obtain 
higher wages. This will enable them to purchase 
more of their products, thus preventing the rapid 
accumulation of surplus values, and assisting in 
the elimination of crises and the unemployed 
problem. 

(6) Economic Contradictions of Capitalism. 

Scientific socialists insist that capitalism con- 
tains within itself certain fundamental contradic- 
tions, in reality the germs of its own destruction, 



THE INEVITABILITY OF SOCIALISM 97 

These are to be found in certain phenomena, some 
of which have already been described. 

(a) The first economic contradiction in capital- 
ism is found in the collective use and the private 
ownership of the means of production and ex- 
change. This contradiction, they claim, can be 
abolished only by socialism, under which collective 
ownership, as well as collective operation, would 
prevail. 

(6) The second contradiction, according to the 
socialists, is that capitalists, in order to market 
their goods and thus turn surplus products into 
cash, are forced to lower the prices of their com- 
modities. This makes possible, and also results 
in, a reduction of wages and a consequent diminu- 
tion of the purchasing power of the workers, thus 
indirectly defeating the objects of the capitalists. 
Lowered prices cause lowered wages ; lowered 
wages mean a reduced purchasing power on the 
part of the workers ; the employer sells less, and 
consequently reaps smaller profits. This in its 
turn brings about the rapid accumulation of sur- 
plus values; panics occur more and more fre- 
quently ; at the same time the trustification of 
industry progresses ; misery increases ; and in the 
end the workers find refuge in the inauguration 
of the socialist state. Thus it is that they declare 



98 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

that capitalism brings about its own destruc- 
tion. 

(<?) The third contradiction is that improved 
processes demand a greater accumulation of capital 
and its investment in constantly increasing sums 
in industrial enterprises. Improvements also lower 
the value of capital invested in existing processes. 
This with the falling rate of profit accelerates 
the concentration of industry. " One capitalist 
devours another," their numbers decrease, and the 
capitalist class at last ceases to function as a class, 
because a social class always presupposes a certain 
minimum of numbers. With a few capitalists on 
the one hand owning all industry, and a thor- 
oughly organized class-conscious propertyless prol- 
etariat composed of millions of laborers on the 
other, the struggle for supremacy under such un- 
equal circumstances cannot be other than of short 
duration, and must, so the scientific socialists say, 
result in the overthrow of capitalism and in the 
introduction of socialism. 

Conclusion. (1) The impossibility of an indefi- 
nite continuance of production under capitalism 
must be proven by the socialists. 

(2) If the validity of their destructive arguments 
is admitted, it still remains for the socialists to show 
beyond a doubt that society must inevitably evolve 
into socialism. 



THE INEVITABILITY OF SOCIALISM 99 

(3) If there are conditions in the present indus- 
trial system which seem to make for the coming of 
socialism, it does not necessarily follow that they 
are inherent in that system. They may merely be 
temporarily connected with it and may be elimi- 
nated with its further development. 

REFERENCES 

1. General References. 

Barker. British Socialism. Chs. 35-36. 
Benson. Socialism Made Plain. Ch. 15. 

* Boudin. The Theoretical System of Karl Marx. Pp. 

147-169. 
Ely. Socialism and Social Reform. Part 1, ch. 8. 

* Ghent. Socialism and Success. Ch. 6. 

Our Benevolent Feudalism. Chs. 8-9. 
Graham. Socialism, New and Old. Ch. 13. 
Gronlund. The Cooperative Commonwealth. Chs. 3, 

13. 
Guthrie. Socialism Before the French Revolution. 

Ch. 9. 
Hobson. Evolution of Modern Capitalism. Ch. 14. 

* Jaures. Studies in Socialism. Ch. 13. 
Mills. The Struggle for Existence. Ch. 22. 

* Untermann. Marxian Economics. Ch. 19. 
Woolsey. Communism and Socialism. Ch. 8. 

2. The Evolution of Society. 

See references, p. 81. 

3. The Economic Interpretation of History and the Class 

Struggle. 

See references, pp. 81-83. 



100 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

4. The Concentration of Industry. 

See references, pp. 85-87. 

5. The Theory of Increasing Misery. 

See references, p. 87. 

6. The Unemployed Problem. 

* Beveridge. Unemployment. 

Hob son. The Problem of the Unemployed. 

* Kautsky. The Class Struggle. Pp. 29-35. 

* Richardson. Industrial Problems. Part 1, ch. 7. 
Skelton. Socialism. Pp. 33 ff., 140 ff . 
Taylor. A Bibliography of Unemployment. 

7. The Economic Contradictions of Capitalism. 

There are very few references which deal directly 
with this point. See especially Boudin, The 
Theoretical System of Karl Marx, pp. 147-169. 



CHAPTER VI 

METHODS OF OBTAINING COLLECTIVE 
OWNERSHIP 

The scientific socialists are continually ques- 
tioned regarding the methods by which they pro- 
pose that the collectivity shall obtain possession 
of the industries of the nation.. Will the change 
from private to collective ownership be made 
gradually, one industry at a time, or will it be 
made at a single stroke ? In either case, how will 
it be done ? 

In answering these questions the scientific 
socialists of to-day are practically unanimous in 
declaring that the change from capitalism to 
socialism must come as the result of evolution 
rather than revolution. First of all there must 
be a victory of the socialist party at the polls. 
The socialist officials would then prepare the way 
for the acquisition for some one important trusti- 
fied industry by passing certain necessary laws, 
by amending the constitution, and by appointing 
sympathetic federal judges. If conditions were 

IOI 



102 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

then satisfactory for socialization to take place, 
the industry would be taken over by the socialist 
government. Some opponents of socialism argue 
that force would be necessary because the capital- 
ists would refuse to part with their ownership of 
industry. The socialists in reply maintain that 
there could be no civil war over the matter of the 
socialization of industry because by the time that 
it was to take place the soldiers of the nation 
would have been won over to a belief in the prin- 
ciples of socialism and would refuse to take sides 
with the capitalists. 

The scientific socialists state that they do not 
know what method or methods would be followed 
in securing the collective ownership of industry, 
but suggest that any of the following might prove 
to be satisfactory : — 

(1) Voluntary bestowal. It is thought that 
perhaps many capitalists might be induced vol- 
untarily to turn over their industries to the 
collectivity. 

(2) Purchase. The collectivity might purchase 
those industries which it was deemed necessary and 
advisable to socialize. 

(3) Pension. It is suggested that the collec- 
tivity might take over the industries needed and 
give their present owners a life pension. 



OBTAINING COLLECTIVE OWNERSHIP 103 

(4) Competition. It is proposed by some that 
the collectivity might engage in industry and com- 
pete with the capitalists, gradually forcing them 
from the field and abolishing private ownership. 

(5) Confiscation. The collectivity might con- 
fiscate all means of exploitation and appropriate 
them for its use. It is contended by the scientific 
socialists that the capitalists have obtained their 
wealth in the first instance by having appropri- 
ated it from the workers in a number of different 
ways, but primarily through the payment of rent, 
interest, and profits, and that its confiscation by 
society would merely be taking back that which 
was originally taken from the workers. 

The impracticability of the first method, vol- 
untary bestowal by the capitalists, is self-evident. 
Payment or purchase would involve the issuance 
of bonds and would burden the nation with a debt 
the proportions of which would be beyond compre- 
hension. It would also probably compel the pay- 
ment of interest to the bondholders, to which policy 
the socialists must logically object. Some have 
suggested that the imposition of income, inherit- 
ance, and property taxes would prove to be of 
great service in reducing the obligations of the 
state in case the industries were purchased by 
the collectivity. Pensions, as would also be the 



104 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

case with interest on bonds, would have to be 
taken from the product of the workers, thus mak- 
ing impossible the realization of the socialist ideal 
of "To the laborer his full product." These two 
methods would also introduce the question of 
inheritance, i.e. whether or not the bonds and 
pensions would be passed on to the heirs of their 
recipients in the first instance. The establishment 
of competing enterprises would cause a great waste 
of capital and would ultimately, though indirectly, 
result in the confiscation of the industrial property 
of those capitalists against whom competition was 
waged. Confiscation is objected to on the grounds 
of justice and because of the determined resistance 
with which it would be met. Vandervelde, the 
leading Belgian socialist, has said, "There is no 
doubt that of all forms of social liquidation, ex- 
propriation without indemnity, with the resistance, 
the troubles, the bloody disturbances which it 
would not fail to produce, would be in the end 
the most costly." 1 

REFERENCES 

Jaures. Studies in Socialism. Ch. 13. 
* Kelly. Twentieth Century Socialism. Book 3, ch. 2. 
Macdonald. The Socialist Movement. Ch. 8. 

1 Collectivism and Industrial Evolution, p. 155. 



OBTAINING COLLECTIVE OWNERSHIP 105 

* Richardson. Methods of Acquiring Possession of our 

National Industries. 
Skelton. Socialism. Pp. 182-184. 

* Spargo. Socialism. Ch. 10. 
Stoddart. The New Socialism. Chs. 3-4. 
Tugan-Baranowsky. Modern Socialism, etc. Chs. 7-8. 

* Vandervelde. Collectivism and Industrial Evolution. 

Part 2, ch. 5. 



CHAPTER VII 

OUTLINES OF A POSSIBLE SOCIALIST STATE 

Although the Utopian socialists outline with 
the greatest detail the plan or scheme of their ideal 
state, the scientific socialists almost consistently- 
refuse to construct even a tentative scheme of 
things which they expect to exist under socialism. 
To a certain extent they are justified in so doing 
because it is impossible to prophesy with any de- 
gree of accuracy what the future will bring forth 
even under capitalism. On the other hand, how- 
ever, it must be admitted that it is no more than 
just to everybody concerned that something be 
known regarding what institutions the socialists 
propose to substitute for those of our present social 
order. Several attempts have been made by prom- 
inent socialists, as well as by some non-socialists, 
to formulate in an indefinite sort of way the scheme 
of things which might possibly exist under social- 
ism, and while they do not bear the stamp of 
approval of the socialist organizations, they afford 
" something more tangible by way of a description 
of the future state than the bald statement that it 

106 



OUTLINES OF A POSSIBLE SOCIALIST STATE 107 

will be free from the struggle between exploiting 
and exploited classes." 1 The following briefly- 
stated outline is a general summary of a number 
of the schemes which have been suggested. 

Politically the cooperative commonwealth would 
be as ideally democratic as it would be possible to 
make it. The representative form of government 
with its courts, legislatures, and executives might 
still exist, but the power of final decision would 
lie entirely with the voters, the right to vote being 
shared equally by men and women, excluding, of 
course, aliens, criminals, lunatics, and minors. 
The initiative, the referendum, and the recall 
would make the "political machinery responsive 
to the popular will," while the adoption of propor- 
tional representation would enable the minority 
to have its opinions voiced upon all public ques- 
tions. 

Regarding " the economic structure of the new 
society," John Spargo, one of the leading socialists 
in the United States, declares that it " will at least 
include the following measures of socialization : 
(1) Ownership of all natural resources, such as 
land, mines, forests, waterways, oil wells, and so 
on ; (2) operation of all means of transportation 
and communication other than those of purely 
1 Spargo, Socialism, p. 278. 



108 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

personal service ; (3) operation of all industrial 
production involving large compound capitals and 
associated labor, except where carried on by vol- 
untary, democratic cooperation, with the necessary 
regulation by the state ; (4) organization of all 
labor essential to the public service, such as the 
building of schools, hospitals, docks, roads, bridges, 
sewers, and the like ; the construction of all the 
machinery and plant requisite to the social pro- 
duction and distribution, and of things necessary 
for the maintenance of those engaged in such pub- 
lic services as the national defence and all who are 
wards of the state ; (5) a monopoly of the mone- 
tary and credit functions, including coinage, bank- 
ing, mortgaging, and the extension of credit to 
private enterprise." 2 There might possibly remain 
a considerable amount of private production and 
exchange, especially in connection with the produc- 
tion and sale of articles of luxury and of commodi- 
ties not in general demand. Small garden plots 
and small farms under the control of the individual 
might also survive, so long as no one were exploited 
as a result thereof. The goal of the socialists is 
the abolition of the exploitation of the workers, 
and nothing which would prevent the realization 
of this ideal could be permitted under socialism. 
2 Socialism, p. 300. 



OUTLINES OF A POSSIBLE SOCIALIST STATE 109 

The question of the organization and manage- 
ment of socialized industry is without doubt the 
most difficult of solution. How are the industries 
to be managed under socialism? To carry out 
the ideals of the socialists everything must be 
done in accordance with democratic principles, 
otherwise socialism would not differ materially 
from government ownership. Great bureaus or 
boards of experts chosen by civil service methods, 
having charge of the management of the social- 
ized industries, would most certainly not be in 
harmony with democratic principles. Such a 
scheme of things could not be called an " indus- 
trial democracy." The workers employed in any 
socialized industry must have a voice in its man- 
agement. This, it is claimed, could be obtained 
through the use of the initiative, the referendum, 
and the recall. The workers would thus be able 
to choose their superintendents, fix their hours, 
wages, and conditions of employment. Precau- 
tions would have to be taken, however, to safe- 
guard the interests of employees in other industries 
and of the public in general ; otherwise, what would 
prevent unheard of abuses and oppressive condi- 
tions from arising? Industry would be so or- 
ganized as to eliminate the wastes which to-day 
characterize competitive production and exchange. 



I IO ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

The middlemen, speculators, advertisers, traders, 
and many others, so necessary to the capitalistic 
system, would disappear. 

Under socialism the individual would have 
practically the same rights and privileges that 
he possesses at the present day, with but one 
notable exception, — he would not be permitted 
to engage in any business which would enable 
him to exploit those who worked for him. He 
would, however, have the right to do anything 
that did not interfere with the welfare of society. 
As under socialism, all exploitation would cease, 
no able-bodied male citizen would live off of the 
results of another's labor except in payment for 
having performed some sort of service for that 
individual or for society at large. Teachers, 
artists, musicians, actors, preachers, etc., would 
be supported, as at present, by those whom they 
served. No person would be unemployed ; work 
would exist for all. Even though labor might 
be made compulsory, there is no occasion for the 
belief on the part of some of the critics of so- 
cialism that jobs would be assigned to each 
individual by the authorities. Men would choose 
their professions as they do to-day. Overcrowd- 
ing in one line might be remedied by a lowering 
of wages owing to the working of the law of 



UTLINES OF A POSSIBLE SOCIALIST STA TE III 

supply and demand, although a minimum wage 
law might be adopted so as to prevent wages 
from falling too low in any one craft. 

Inasmuch as under the proposed ideal conditions 
of a cooperative commonwealth rent, interest, and 
profits would not be paid out of the worker's product, 
it is urged by the socialists that the laborers would 
receive a higher wage and consequently would be 
able to maintain a higher standard of living than 
is possible at the present time. This would make 
for education, for recreation, for better lives, for 
better homes, and for better conditions in general. 
There is no basis for the statement that socialism 
would destroy either the home or religion. In- 
dividuals would not be forced to live in barracks ; 
to dress, think, and act alike ; or to belong to 
the same religious sect. 

Such, in brief, is a resume of what might possibly 
occur under socialism. Even though one puts aside 
all mention of those difficulties which would have 
to be overcome in obtaining possession of the 
means of production and exchange and in organ- 
izing them upon a socialistic or collective basis, 
tasks which in themselves are so difficult and of 
such stupendous proportions as to stagger one's 
imaginative powers when once fully appreciated, 
there still remain many very serious objections 



112 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

which, in all fairness, can be urged against any- 
proposed scheme of socialism. 

One of the more important arguments against 
an " industrial democracy " is the claim that the 
workers could not satisfactorily conduct the 
socialized industries of the nation by means of the 
democratic measures which have been outlined 
above. The validity of this objection is partially 
sustained by the evidence of the lack of interest 
taken in the management of cooperative and simi- 
lar enterprises by cooperators, and by the custom- 
ary failure of all ventures in which too many cooks 
have spoiled the broth. Two other matters which 
must be taken into consideration are the ceaseless 
activities of the self-seeking individual, always 
eager for " a soft berth " and a prominent position, 
and the possibilities of graft and corruption. The 
workers are eager for a higher standard of living, 
but are they desirous of undertaking the respon- 
sibility of managing the industries of the nation, 
to say nothing of the question which can be raised 
regarding their ability to do so ? 

Another matter upon which some opponents of 
socialism lay considerable stress is the impossi- 
bility of carrying on agriculture under a regime 
of collectivism. The difficulties of farming the 
vast areas of land necessary to supply the people 



OUTLINES OF A POSSIBLE SOCIALIST STATE 113 

with foodstuffs and the task of marketing the 
farming products appear unsurmountable to a large 
number of people. Thus far, the socialists have 
done comparatively little constructive thinking in 
this connection and cannot be said to have pro- 
posed any generally accepted policy other than 
that which is contained in the phrase " the collec- 
tive ownership of land." 

The problem of how to devise and introduce a 
just system of remunerating the workers in a 
socialist state is another question which should 
be squarely and fairly met by the advocates of so- 
cialism, but as yet their party platforms and official 
declarations are strangely silent regarding it. The 
slogan of " Give to labor its full product " is an 
excellent bit of propaganda, but it cannot be 
worked out satisfactorily in actual industry, for 
how is it possible to calculate the full product of 
brakemen, bookkeepers, superintendents, and a 
thousand and one other kinds of employees ! The 
plan of an equality of wages does not appeal to 
a majority of scientific socialists and is seldom 
mentioned in these later days, although it was the 
method most commonly proposed by the earlier 
Utopian socialists. To pay a worker in accordance 
with his needs is a proposition too indefinite to 
warrant serious comment. Some have proposed 



1 14 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

that wages be fixed by the amount of socially 
necessary labor time put in by the worker, but in 
this connection one meets with the problem of how 
to reduce skilled labor time to terms of unskilled 
labor time. It has been suggested that wages be 
determined by the law of supply and demand, but 
this scheme would prove to be contradictory to the 
ideals of the socialists inasmuch as it would pre- 
vent the payment of the full product. 

Would wages be paid in money or in time 
checks? The latter would be more in harmony 
with the theories of the socialists, for it would 
somewhat facilitate payment on the basis of the 
number of hours of socially necessary labor ex- 
pended. In spite of this, however, it is seriously 
objected to by many socialists, who propose instead 
that wages be paid in money. Valid arguments 
can be raised against both propositions. 

What would be the effect upon the individual 
and upon society of having every person assured 
of employment, for such is the goal of the social- 
ists ? To-day the fear of unemployment forces the 
worker to put forth his best efforts so as to retain 
his job. Wherein would lie the incentive under 
socialism? Would not the same sort of inertia, 
which is to be noted to-day among governmental 
employees, be present even to a greater extent 



OUTLINES OF A POSSIBLE SOCIALIST STA TE 1 1 5 

among all the employees of the collective state ? 
Socialists argue that there need be no fear on this 
score because the workers would realize that they 
were laboring for themselves and would therefore 
put forth their best efforts. On the other hand, it 
must be remembered that many cooperative enter- 
prises have failed for this very reason, even though 
the cooperators realized that they were their own 
employers and that the returns of their company 
would be greater the harder they worked. 

The question also arises whether or not there 
would be danger of over-population in a socialist 
state through the working of the Malthusian law 
of population. Population, being held back only 
by "the actual pressure of famine and disease 
(arising from an insufficient food supply), or by 
the prudential motives which restrain men from 
undertaking the responsibility of marrying and 
raising families upon incomes insufficient to pro- 
vide the necessities of life," would it not increase 
by leaps and bounds under socialism through the 
consequent removal of these restraints? The 
scientific socialists, however, declare that a rise in 
the standard of living does not make for an in- 
creased population, and offer as proof of their 
statement the fact that it is usually the very poor, 
the people who have the lowest wages and the 



Il6 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

lowest standard of living, that have the largest 
families. 

Some critics of the socialist doctrines maintain 
that socialism would have to come simultaneously 
in all countries, a thing which would be impossible; 
otherwise, that nation which first became socialized 
would experience unheard-of difficulties in its re- 
lations with other nations which had remained 
capitalistic. These difficulties, for the most part, 
would arise in connection with the question of 
immigration and as a result of the change in the 
standards of value and of money. 

These objections are but a few of those most 
frequently urged against conditions which might 
prevail in the prophesied stage of socialism. 
They are sufficient to show that many grave ques- 
tions remain unanswered by those who advocate 
the introduction of a collective state of society. 



REFERENCES 

i. General References to a Discussion of Various Phases 
of a Possible Socialist State. 

(a) Socialist Authors. 

Blatchford. Merrie England. Ch. 23. 

De Leon. Marx versus Mallock. 

Fabian Essays. Pp. 120-157. 

Ghent. Socialism and Success. Pp. 210 ff., 247 ff. 



OUTLINES OF A POSSIBLE SOCIALIST STATE l\J 

* Gronlund. The Cooperative Commonwealth. 
Hilquit. Socialism in Theory and Practice. Part 1, 

ch. 5. 
Mr. Mallock's " Ability." 
Kaufmann. What is Socialism? Ch. 8. 

* Kautsky. The Class Struggle. Pp. 88-159. 

* Kelly. Twentieth Century Socialism. Book 3. 
Macdonald. The Socialist Movement. Ch. 9. 

* Richardson. Industrial Problems. Part 2, chs. 1-4. 
Spargo. The Substance of Socialism. Parts 2-3. 

Socialism. Ch. 9. 
Vail. Principles of Scientific Socialism. Chs. 4-5. 
Vandervelde. Collectivism and Industrial Evolution. 

Part 2, ch. 4. 
Wells. New Worlds for Old. Ch. 13. 

(b) Non-socialist Authors and Critics. 

* Anonymous. The Case Against Socialism. Chs. 5-17. 
Barker. British Socialism. Chs. 2, 36. 
Bramwell. Economics and Socialism. 

Cathrein. Socialism. 
Donisthorpe. Individualism. 
*Ely. Socialism and Social Reform. Part 1, ch. 4; 
part 3. 
Flint. Socialism. 

Forster. English Socialism of To-day. 
Graham. Socialism, New and Old. Chs. 5-8. 
Guyot. The Tyranny of Socialism. 

Socialistic Fallacies. Book 7. 
Kaufmann. Socialism. Book 3. 
Leroy-Beaulieu. Collectivism. 
Mallock. Social Equality. 

Classes and Masses. 

A Critical Examination of Socialism. 

Socialism. 

Aristocracy and Evolution. 



Il8 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

Naquet. Collectivism and Socialism. 
Nicholson. Historical Progress and Ideal Socialism. 
*Schaffle. The Impossibility of Social Democracy. 

* The Quintessence of Socialism. 

* Skelton. Socialism. Ch. 8. 
Spencer. The Man versus the State. 

* Stoddart. The New Socialism. Chs. 7, 9, 13. 
Strachey. Problems and Perils of Socialism. 
Sumner. What Social Classes Owe to Each Other. 

2. Socialism and Equality. 

Ferri. Socialism and Modern Science. Pp. 13-34. 
Ely. Socialism and Social Reform. Part 1, ch. 5. 
Richardson. Industrial Problems. Pp. 216-218. 
Shaw. Socialism and Superior Brains. 

* Spargo. Socialists; Who They Are, etc. Pp. 107-119. 

* Vail. Modern Socialism. Ch. 14, sec. 1. 

* Principles of Scientific Socialism. Ch. 13, sec. 10. 
Wells. New Worlds for Old. Ch. 9, sec. 5. 

3. Socialism and Individual Freedom. 

(a) Socialist Authors. 

Blatchford. Merrie England. Chs. 18, 21. 
Ghent. Socialism and Success. Pp. 249 ff. 
Hilquit. Socialism in Theory and Practice. Part 1, 

ch. 2. 
Hyndman. Socialism and Slavery. 

* Kautsky. The Class Struggle. Pp. 148-159. 
Kelly. Twentieth Century Socialism. Pp. 46-51. 

* Richardson. Industrial Problems. Pp. 224 ff. 

* Spargo. The Substance of Socialism. Part 2. 
Vail. Modern Socialism. Ch. 14, sees. 7, 9. 
Vandervelde. Collectivism and Industrial Evolution. 

Part 2, ch. 6, sec. 2. 
Wells. New Worlds for Old. Ch. 9, sec. 4. 



OUTLINES OF A POSSIBLE SOCIALIST STATE 1 19 

(6) Non-socialists and Critics, 

Anonymous. The Case Against Socialism. Ch. 7. 
Ely. Evolution of Industrial Society. Part 2, ch. 11. 
Naquet. Collectivism and Socialism. Book 3, ch. 5. 

* Skelton. Socialism. Pp. 215 ff. 

* Spencer. The Man versus the State. 
Stoddart. The New Socialism. Ch. 8. 

ViLLiERS. The Socialist Movement in England. Part 
3, ch. 5. 

4. Socialism and Incentive. 

(a) Socialist Authors. 

Benson. Socialism Made Plain. Ch. 7. 

* Blatchford. Merrie England. Chs. 14, 17. 
Vandervelde. Collectivism and Industrial Evolution. 

Part 2, ch. 6, sec. 1. 

(b) Criticism. 

Anonymous. The Case Against Socialism. Pp. 311- 
317. 

5. Socialism and Agriculture. 

(a) Socialist Authors. 

Benson. Socialism Made Plain. Ch. 8. 
Carpenter and Others. Socialism and Agriculture. 
Ensor. Modern Socialism. Chs. 15-16. 
Mills. The Struggle for Existence. Ch. 32. 
Richardson. Industrial Problems. Part 2, ch. 3. 

* Simons. The American Farmer. 

(b) Criticism. 

Anonymous. The Case Against Socialism. Chs. 14-15. 
Barker. British Socialism. Chs. 8, 18. 

* Ely. Socialism and Social Reform. Pp. 219-221. 

* Flint. Socialism. Ch. 6. 



120 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

6. Socialism and Population. 
(a) Socialist Authors. 

Bebel. Woman Under Socialism. Pp. 355-371. 
Mills. The Struggle for Existence. Ch. 27. 

(6) Criticism. 

Anonymous. The Case Against Socialism. Pp. 405- 
410. 
* Skelton. Socialism. Pp. 218 ff. 



CHAPTER VIII 

SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. SOCIALISM AND 
TRADE-UNIONISM 

The scientific socialists in late years have, to a 
very great extent, changed their position upon the 
question of trade-unionism. Although not openly 
opposing its tenets, the early leaders of scientific 
socialism were not strongly inclined to accept 
them. The International Workingmen's Associa- 
tion, organized by Marx in 1864, and led by him 
until its dissolution in 1876, was not a trade-union 
in any sense of the word. It was an international 
association of workingmen formed for the purpose 
of spreading socialistic ideas, and of bettering the 
conditions of the workers by means other than 
those followed to-day by trade-unionists. 

Socialists in the past have opposed trade-union- 
ism on the grounds that — 

(1) It can only lessen the exploitation of the 
laboring class ; it cannot abolish it. 

(2) Collective bargaining is both inconclusive 
and enormously costly. In the end unions cannot 
help but fail to be productive of results, and as a 



122 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

consequence will then be forced into politics, and 
will fight out their battles against the employers 
upon the political field and under the banner of 
socialism. 

(3) The field of union activities is very limited, 
being confined for the most part to union mem- 
bers, the majority of whom are males. 

(4) The unions touch only a few of the vital 
interests of their members, such as questions of 
hours, wages, and working conditions in general, 
and do not concern themselves with the larger 
and more important problems, in connection with 
which the workers have well-defined class interests. 
The struggle upon the industrial field is but one- 
half of the battle, because political issues, in the 
majority of cases, are also of great economic im- 
portance. 

(5) Unions are frequently led by unscrupulous, 
self-seeking men, whom the socialists designate as 
"labor fakirs." 

With the growing strength of Organized Labor, 
the socialists have realized that the unions can be 
used for the purpose of advancing the propaganda 
of socialism, and as a consequence they have be- 
come very active in trade-union circles. Their 
present point of view is briefly set forth in the 
following five propositions : — 



SOCIALISM AND TRADE-UNIONISM 1 23 

(1) The trade-unions are an outgrowth of the 
conditions of capitalistic industry. 

(2) They are a necessity in the struggle of the 
workers against their employers. 

(3) All members of the socialist party are there- 
fore advised to join the union of their craft, so as 
to further the struggle of their class against their 
employers upon the industrial field. 

(4) Political differences of opinion do not jus- 
tify a division of the workers upon the industrial 
or the political fields. They should always pre- 
sent a united front to their employers. 

(5) It is to the interest of the working class 
that its members be educated in socialist doctrines, 
and that they be taught " to vote as they strike," 
i.e. in accordance with their class interests. 
Thus the socialists at present are pursuing a 
policy of " boring from within," i.e. of joining the 
unions and working from within with the idea of 
converting the members to socialism, rather than 
of following the policy of remaining outside the 
unions and attempting to force them into class- 
conscious political action. 

In brief, the present-day scientific socialists do 
not oppose trade-unionism. They hold that the 
union should be the weapon of the working class 
upon the industrial field, and that the socialist 



124 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

party should be its weapon upon the political field. 
It is only by this means that it would be possible 
in every instance for the proletariat to act as a 
unit in its struggle with the capitalist class. 



REFERENCES 

i. Socialism and Trade-unionism. 

(a) Statement by Socialists. 
Bebel. Labor Unions and Political Parties. 
Bernstein. Evolutionary Socialism. Pp. 135 ff. 
Debs. Unionism and Socialism. 
*Hilquit. History of Socialism in the United States. 
Part 2, ch. 3, sec. 4. 

* Kampffmeyer. Changes in the Theory, etc. Ch. 5. 

* Kautsky. The Class Struggle. Pp. 188-202. 
Mills. The Struggle for Existence. Ch. 35. 
Skelton. Socialism. Pp. 240-242, 291 ff., 304 ff. 

(6) Criticism. 

Barker. British Socialism. Ch. 7. 
♦Goldstein. Socialism; the Nation of Fatherless 
Children. Pp. 323-369. 

2. The International Working-men's Association. 

Dawson. German Socialism and Ferdinand Lassalle. 

Ch. 13. 
Ely. The Labor Movement in America. Ch. 9. 

* French and German Socialism. Ch. 11. 

Hilquit. History of Socialism in the United States. 

Part 2, ch. 3, sees. 1-3. 
Kaufmann. Utopias, etc. Ch. 14. 

* Kirkup. History of Socialism. Ch. 8. 



SOCIALISM AND TRADE-UNIONISM 1 25 

Laveleye. Socialism of To-day. Ch. 9. 

Skelton. Socialism. Pp. 226-229. 

Sombart. Socialism and the Social Movement. Pp. 

175-192. 
Woolsey. Communism and Socialism. Ch. 4. 



CHAPTER IX 

CONCLUSION 

In their criticism of capitalistic society the posi- 
tion of the scientific socialists is, for the most part, 
well taken. As a result of this criticism many of 
the more flagrant abuses of capitalism have been 
abolished. In this regard the socialist agitation 
has performed an invaluable service to mankind 
and has amply justified the enthusiasm and efforts 
of its followers. On the other hand, however, seri- 
ous objections can be raised not only against the 
Marxian theories, upon which the movement is 
supposed to be based, but also against the pro- 
posals of the socialists regarding what is to be the 
order of things under their prophesied social and 
industrial system. The socialists can also be very 
adversely criticised for underestimating the great 
complexity of the present industrial organization. 
Too many of them do not realize the difficulties 
which would have to be met in bringing about its 
socialization. 

As a result of the constant modification of party 
principles and as a consequence of the adaptation 

126 



CONCLUSION 127 

of their programme to current needs with the idea 
of grappling with present-day problems, although 
some critics say solely for the purpose of vote-get- 
ting, constructive policies of various sorts are 
being constantly advanced by the socialists. So 
noticeable has been this change in their attitude 
that many now contend that the socialist party in 
a majority of countries has become merely a radi- 
cal labor party and has truly lost sight of its 
former goal, i.e. socialism. This situation is also 
responsible for the late and rapidly growing opin- 
ion that socialism and the socialist movement are 
two distinct things, the former being a belief in 
the Marxian theories and in the prophesied stage 
of collective ownership, while the latter is nothing 
more than a radical political party and is concerned 
with the Marxian principles only through a fre- 
quent though unintelligent use of the terms which 
Marx employed in advancing his ideas. There is, 
indeed, much truth in the statement that the so- 
cialist movement does not stand or fall with the 
substantiation or the refutation of the Marxian 
doctrines. 

Finally, it can be truly said that the socialists 
fail to recognize the strength and the advantages 
of capitalism. They see only its weaknesses and 
abuses. Capitalism as yet is very young, being 



128 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

scarcely more than a century old, and one ought 
not to expect it to be a perfect or an ideal state. 
Possibly many or all of the evils which exist to-day 
may be removed in the future, leaving only the 
advantages to persist. Capitalism is not totter- 
ing on its last legs, as many socialists claim ; it is 
still very strong and active, and its end is not yet 
in sight. Marx, Engels, and other socialists of 
early vintage predicted its overthrow as destined 
to occur some decades ago, but its dissolution ap- 
pears to be as far as ever, or possibly farther than 
ever, removed from the present. It is because of 
these things that the socialists can be justly 
criticised for underestimating the possibilities and 
the value of social reform measures and for scoffing 
at those who propose them as an end in them- 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The following bibliography does not aim to be 
complete in any sense of the word. It contains 
only the titles of those volumes which may prove 
to be of direct aid to the student of socialism. 
Only English titles are given where translations 
have been made. 

Bibliographies 

Ely. Socialism and Social Reform. Pp. 339-442. 

Guthrie. Socialism Before the French Revolution. Ch. I. 

Harvard University Faculty. Guide to Reading in 
Social Ethics and Allied Subjects. Cambridge, 1910. 

Hunter. Socialists at Work. Pp. 364-367. 

Nordhoff. The Communistic Societies of the United 
States. Pp. 421-432. 

Skelton. Socialism. Pp. 313-322. 

Stammhammer, J. Bibliographic des Socialismus und 
Communismus. 3 vols. Jena, 1893-1909. 

Stoddart. The New Socialism. Pp. 4-20. 

Bliss, W. D. P. Encyclopedia of Social Reform (New 
York, 1908), and Stegman, C, and Hugo, C. Hand- 
buch des Socialismus (Zurich, 1897) will be found to 
be of constant assistance to the interested reader. 

Magazines and Newspapers 

Among the more important are : — 
United States 
The International Socialist Review, Chicago, monthly. 
This magazine contains a very ably edited depart- 
k 129 



130 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

ment of " World News," in which excellent data can 
be found dealing with late developments in the 
socialist movement of other countries. 

The Appeal to Reason, Girard, Kan., weekly. 

The Coming Nation, Girard, Kan., weekly. 

The Social Democratic Herald, Milwaukee, weekly. 

Die Vorwarts, Milwaukee, weekly. 

The Chicago Daily Socialist, Chicago. 

The New York Call, New York, daily. 

England 

All of the following are published in London : — 
The Socialist Review, monthly. 
The Labor Leader, monthly. 
Justice, weekly. 
The Clarion, weekly. 
The Commonwealth, weekly. 
The Fabian News, weekly. 
Liberty, monthly. 

Germany 

Die Neue Zeit, Stuttgart, weekly. 
Socialistische Monatshefte, Berlin, biweekly. 
Die Vorwarts, Berlin, daily. 

France 

All of the following are published in Paris : — 
La revue socialiste, monthly. 
Le mouvement socialiste, monthly. 
Le socialisme, weekly. 
La guerre sociale, weekly. 
L'Humanite, daily. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 131 

Books and Pamphlets 

Ackland, A. H. D. and Jones, B. Workingmen Coopera- 

tors; What They Have Done and What They are 

Doing. Manchester, 1898. 
Adams, F. U. President John Smith. Chicago, 1897. 
Adams, T. S., and Sumner, H. L. Labor Problems. New 

York, 1905. 
Adderley, Father. Meditations for Christian Socialists. 

London, 1903. 
Anonymous. The Case Against Socialism. New York, 

1908. 
Anonymous. The Story of My Dictatorship. New 

York, 1894. 
Aveling, E. The Students' Marx. London, 1891. 
Aves, E. Cooperative Industry. London, 1907. 
Babeuf, G. (1760-1797). Cadastre perpetuel. Paris, 1789. 
Petition sur les impdts. Paris, 1790. 
La nouvelle distinction des ordres par M. de Mirabeau. 
Du systeme de depopulation, ou la vie et les crimes de 

Carrier. Paris, 1794. 
Bacon, F. New Atlantis. 1635. 

Bailie, W. J. Josiah Warren, the First American An- 
archist. Boston, 1906. 
Bakounine (Bakunin), M. (1814-1876). Dieu et l'etat. 

1871. 
Federalisme, socialisme et anti-theologisme. Geneva. 

1895. 
Lettres sur le patriotisme. Paris, 1895. 
Ballou, A. History of the Hopedale Community. 

Lowell, Mass., 1897. 
Barker, E. The Political Thought of Plato and Aristotle. 

New York, 1906. 
Barker, J. E. British Socialism. London, 1908. 
Barry, Rev. A. Christianity and Socialism. London, 

1890. 



132 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

Bax, E. B. The Religion of Socialism. London, 1887. 
Bax, E. B., and Morris, W. Socialism ; Its Growth and 

Outcome. London, 1893. 
Beard, C. The Industrial Revolution. London, 1901. 
Bebel, A. Labor Unions and Political Parties. (Pamphlet.) 
Milwaukee, 1906. 
Woman under Socialism. New York, 1904. 
Behrends, A. J. F. Socialism and Christianity. New 

York, 1886. 
Bellamy, E. Equality. New York, 1897. 

Looking Backward. London, 1888. 
Bemis, E. W.; Randall, D. R.; Shaw, A.; Shinn, C. H. 
History of Cooperation in the United States. Balti- 
more, 1888. 
Benson, A. L. Socialism Made Plain. (Pamphlet.) 

Milwaukee, 1904. 
Bernstein, E. Evolutionary Socialism. London, 1909. 
Ferdinand Lassalle as a Social Reformer. London, 
1893. 
Berth, E. Les nouveaux aspects du socialisme, etc. 

Paris, 1908. 
Beveridge, W. H. Unemployment; A Problem of In- 
dustry. London, 1909. 
Blanc, L. (1811-1882). Organization du travail. Paris, 
1840. 
Le socialisme, droit au travail. Paris, 1848. 
Questions d'aujourd'hui et de demain. Paris, 1873. 
Blanqui, L. A. (1805-1881). L'Eternite dans les astres. 
Paris, 1872. 
Critique sociale. 2 vols. Paris, 1885. 
Blatchford, R. Britain for the British. Chicago, 1902. 

Merrie England. Chicago, 1897. 
Bohm-Bawerk, E. von. The Positive Theory of Capital. 
London, 1882. 
Karl Marx and the Close of his System. New York, 
1898. 



BIBLIO GRAPHY 1 3 3 

Capital and Interest. London, 1890. 
Bole, J. A. The Harmony Society. Philadelphia, 1904. 
Bonar, James. Philosophy and Political Economy in 

Some of their Historical Relations. London, 1893. 
Booth, A. J. Robert Owen, the Founder of Socialism in 

England. London, 1869. 
Saint-Simon and Saint-Simonism. London, 1871. 
Boudin, L. B. The Theoretical System of Karl Marx. 

Chicago, 1907. 
Bramwell, Lord. Economics versus Socialism. London, 

1888. 
Bray, J. F. Labour's Wrongs and Labour's Remedy. 

Leeds, 1839. 
Brooks, J. G. The Social Unrest. New York, 1903. 
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134 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

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De Leon, D. Marx versus Mallock. (Pamphlet.) New 

York, 1909. 
Devine, E. T. Misery and its Causes. New York, 1909. 
Donisthorpe, W. Individualism, a System of Politics. 

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Law in a Free State. New York, 1895. 
Eastlake, A. Oneida Community. London, 1900. 



BIB LI GRAPHY 1 3 5 

Eltzbacher, P. Anarchism. New York, 1908. 
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Monopolies and Trusts. New York, 1900. 
The Labor Movement in America. New York, 1886. 
French and German Socialism in Modern Times. New 

York, 1900. 
Socialism and Social Reform. New York, 1894. 
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Socialism, Utopian and Scientific. Chicago, 1903. 
Feuerbach; the Roots of the Socialist Philosophy. 

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The Condition of the Working-class in England in 1844. 

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The Working-class Movement in America. London, 1888. 
The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the 
State. Chicago, 1902. 
Ensor, R. C. K. Modern Socialism. 2d ed. New York, 

1907. 
Fabian Essays in Socialism. Edited by G. B. Shaw. 

Boston, 1909. 
Fabian Tracts, nos. 1-136. 
Fay, C. R. Cooperation at Home and Abroad. London, 

1908. 
Ferri, E. Socialism and Modern Science. New York, 

1900. 
Fillebrown, C. B. The ABC of Taxation. New 

York, 1909. 
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Boston, 1896. 
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Progress and Poverty. 
A Perplexed Philosopher. 
Social Problems. 
Protection or Free Trade. 
Property in Land. 
The Condition of Labor. 
The Land Question. 
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Our Benevolent Feudalism. New York, 1902. 
Socialism and Success. New York, 1910. 
Gibbins, H. de B. English Social Reformers. London, 

1902. 
Gilman, M. P. Socialism and the American Spirit. 

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litical Justice and its Influence on General Virtue 
and Happiness. 2 vols. London, 1793. 
The Inquirer; Reflections upon Education, Manners, 

and Literature. London, 1797. 
Of Population. London, 1820. 

Thoughts on Man, his Nature, Productions, and Dis- 
coveries. London, 1831. 
Gohre, P. Evangelical-Social Movement in Germany; 
Its History and Aims. London, 1898. 
Three Months in a Workshop. London, 1895. 
Goldman, E. Anarchism and Other Essays. New York, 
1911. 



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Goldstein, D. Socialism; the Nation of Fatherless 

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The Socialist State ; Its Nature, Aims, and Conditions. 
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1891. 
Grave, J. Moribund Society and Anarchy. San Fran- 
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La societe future. Paris, 1895. 
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Lectures on the Nature and the Use of Money. Edin- 
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Guthrie, W. B. Socialism Before the French Revolu- 
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Hall, C. (1745-1825). The Effects of Civilization upon 
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138 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

Headlam, S. D. Christian Socialism. Fabian Tract, 

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Hinds, W. A. American Communities and Cooperative 

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The Life and the Last Days of Robert Owen of New 
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Hughes, T. The Manliness of Christ. 21st ed. New 

York, 1896. 
Hunter, R. Poverty. New York, 1906. 

Socialists at Work. New York, 1908. 
Hyndman, H. M. Historical Basis of Socialism in Eng- 
land. London, 1883. 
The Economics of Socialism. London, 1896. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 39 

Commercial Crises of the Nineteenth Century. Lon- 
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Utopias from Sir Thomas More to Karl Marx. Lon- 
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140 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

Kidd, B. Social Evolution. New York, 1895. 
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 141 

Lassalle, F. (1825-1864). The Working-men's Program. 

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Lloyd, H. D. Wealth against Commonwealth. New 

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142 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

The Trust Movement in British Industry. New York, 
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Mathews, Shailer. The Social Teachings of Jesus. 

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Working-men and the Franchise. London, 1866. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 143 

Social Morality. 1869. 
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Lectures on a Rational System of Society. 1841. 



144 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

Letters to the Human Race on the Coming Universal 
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Packard, F. A. Life of Robert Owen. Philadelphia, 



Parsons, F.; Tyson, R.; Pomeroy, E.; Cross, I. B, 
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Patten, S. N. The Development of English Thought. 
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Paul, C. K. Wm. Godwin; His Friends and Contem- 
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Peabody, F. Jesus Christ and the Social Question. 
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Peixotto, J. B. The French Revolution and Modern 
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Perkins, W. R., and Wick, B. L. History of the Amana 
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Plechanofp, G. Anarchism and Socialism. Chicago, 
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Pocket Library of Socialism. (Pamphlets.) Nos. 1-60. 
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Podmore, F. Ro,bert Owen, a Biography. 2 vols. New 
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Politicus. The New Emancipation. (Pamphlet.) Mil- 
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Post, L. F. The Single Tax. (Pamphlet.) Cedar 
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Potter, B. The Cooperative Movement in Great Britain. 
London, 1899. 

Pouget, E. La Confederation generate du travail. Paris, 
1908. 

Pratt, S. S. The Work of Wall Street. New York, 1903. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 45 

Prezzolini, P. La Teoria Sindacalista. Naples, 1909. 
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Rae, J. Contemporary Socialism. 2d ed. New York, 

1891. 
Randall, E. O. History of the Zoar Society. Columbus, 

Ohio, 1900. 
Rauschenbusch, W. Christianity and the Social Crisis. 

New York, 1907. 
Reeve, S. A. The Cost of Competition. New York, 

1906. 
Reeves, W. P. State Experiments in Australia and New 

Zealand. London, 1902. 
Richardson, N. A. Industrial Problems. Chicago, 
1910. 
Methods of Acquiring Possession of our National In- 
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Ritchie, D. G. Natural Rights. London, 1895. 
Robertson, J. M. Buckle and his Critics. London, 

1895. 
Rodbertus-Jagetzow, K. (1805-1875). His more im- 
portant works are : — 
Zur Erkenntniss unserer staatswissenschaftlichen Zus- 

tande. Neubrandenburg, 1842. 
Zur Beleuchtung der socialen Frage. 2 vols. Berlin, 

1875-1885. 
Das Kapital. Berlin, 1884. 
Ruskin, J. (1819-1900). The following volumes have 
reference to economic questions: — 
Fors Clavigera. London, 1871. 
Time and Tide. London, 1868. 
Crown of Wild Olive. London, 1866. 
Unto This Last. London, 1862. 
Munera Pulveris. London, 1862-1863. 



I46 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

Russell, B. German Social Democracy. London, 1896. 
St. Ledger, A. Australian Socialism. New York, 1909. 
Saint-Simon, Comte de (1760-1825). (Euvres de H. 
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Schaffle, A. The Quintessence of Socialism. London, 
1888. 
The Impossibility of Social Democracy. London, 1892. 
Seager, H. R. Introduction to Economics. 3d ed. 

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Seebohm, F. The Oxford Reformers. London, 1887. 
Seligman, E. R. A. The Economic Interpretation of 
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Principles of Economics. New York, 1905. 
Shaw, A. Icaria, a Chapter in the History of Com- 
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The Fabian Society; Its Early History. Fabian Tract, 

no. 41. 
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Sherman, T. G. Natural Taxation. New York, 1898. 
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xxv, 393. 
Simons, A. M. Socialism versus Anarchy. Pocket 
Library of Socialism, no. 31. 
The American Farmer. Chicago, 1902. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 47 

Single Tax versus Socialism. Pocket Library of Social- 
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Class Struggles in America. Chicago, 1907. 
Skelton, O. D. Socialism; a Critical Analysis. New 

York, 1911. 
Smart, W. Taxation of Land Values and the Single Tax. 

Glasgow, 1900. 
Smith, H. L. The Economic Aspects of State Socialism. 

Oxford, 1887. 
Soderni, E. Socialism and Catholicism. London, 1896. 
Sombart, W. Socialism and the Social Movement. 

New York, 1909. 
Sorel, G. Reflexions sur la violence. Paris, 1908. 

La decomposition du marxisme. Paris, 1908. 
Sotheran, C. Horace Greeley and Other Pioneers of 

American Socialism. New York, 1892. 
Spahr, C. B. An Essay on the Present Distribution of 

Wealth in the United States. New York, 1896. 
Spargo, J. Socialism. New York, 1906. 

Karl Marx ; His Life and Work. New York, 1909. 

The Marx he Knew. Chicago, 1909. 

The Spiritual Significance of Modern Socialism. New 

York, 1908. 
The Substance of Socialism. New York, 1909. 
Sidelights on Contemporary Socialism. New York, 1911. 
The Common Sense of Socialism. Chicago, 1909. 
Capitalist and Laborer. Chicago. 1907. 
The Socialists; Who They Are and What they Stand 
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Spencer, H. The Man versus the State. London, 1884. 
Sprague, F. M. Socialism from Genesis to Revelation. 

Boston, 1893. 
Stirner, M. (Johann Kaspar Schmidt). The Ego and 
his Own. New York, 1907. 
Das umwahre Princip unserer Erziehung, etc. Berlin, 
1895. 



I48 ESSENTIALS OF SOCIALISM 

Stoddart, J. T. The New Socialism. New York, 1910. 
Strachey, J. The Problems and Perils of Socialism. 

New York, 1908. 
Stubbs, C. W. Land and the Laborer. London, 1891. 
Christ and Economics. London, 1893. 
A Creed for Christian Socialists. London, 1897. 
Charles Kingsley and the Christian Social Movement. 
London, 1899. 
Sumner, W. G. What Social Classes Owe to Each Other. 

New York, 1884. 
Swift, L. Brook Farm; its Members, Scholars, and 

Visitors. New York, 1900. 
Taylor, F. I. A Bibliography of Unemployment. Lon- 
don, 1909. 
Thackeray, S. W. The Land and the Community. 

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Thompson, William (1785-1833). An Enquiry into the 
Principles of the Distribution of Wealth, etc. Lon- 
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Appeal of One-half of the Human Race, etc. London, 

1824. 
Practical Directions for the Speedy and Economical 

Establishment of Communities, etc. London, 1830. 
Labor Rewarded. London, 1827. 
Tolstoi, L. (1828-1911). My Confession. 1879. 
The Gospel in Brief. 1884. 
What I Believe. 1884. 
What Shall We do Then? 1885. 
On Life. 1887. 

The Kingdom of God is within You. 1893. 
Tucker, B. R. Instead of a Book. New York, 1897. 
Tugan-Baranowsky, M. Modern Socialism in its His- 
torical Development. London, 1910. 
Untermann, E. The World's Revolutions. Chicago, 
1906. 
Science and Revolution. Chicago, 1905. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 49 

Marxian Economics. Chicago, 1907. 
Vail, C. H. Modern Socialism. New York, 1897. 
Principles of Scientific Socialism. Chicago, 1906. 
Vadervelde, E. Collectivism and Industrial Evolution. 

Chicago, 1901. 
Veblen, T. The Theory of the Leisure Class. New 
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The Theory of Business Enterprise. New York, 1904. 
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Wallace, A. R. Land Nationalization. London, 1892. 
Webb, S. Socialism in England. 2d ed. London, 1893. 
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New Worlds for Old. New York, 1908. 
Winn, H. Property in Land. New York, 1888. 
Woods, R. A. English Social Movements. 2d ed. Lon- 
don, 1895. 
Woodward, A. V. Christian Socialism in England. 

London, 1903. 
Woolsey, T. D. Communism and Socialism in their 

History and Theory. New York, 1888. 
Yarros, V. Anarchism ; Its Aims and Methods. Boston, 

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Zenker, E. V. Anarchism. New York, 1898. 



INDEX 



Acquiring industries, socialist 

proposals, 101-105. 
Agriculture under socialism, 26, 

112-113, 119. 
Anarchism, 19-22, 29-30. 
Australia, socialism in, 8-9. 

Bernstein, Ed., 71. 
Bohm-Bawerk, 58-59. 

Catastrophe theory, 67-70, 87- 

88. 
Christian Socialism, 36, 74-75. 
Class struggle, 44-48, 81-83, 

91-93. 
Communism, 3, 23. 
Communist Manifesto, 2, 40. 
Competition, 17. 
Concentration of industry, 63- 

65, 85-87, 93-96. 
Confiscation, 103-104. 
Contradictions of capitalism, 

96-98, 100. 
Cooperation, 17, 28-29. 
Cooperative Commonwealth, 

106-120. 
Crises, 59-61, 84-85, 94-95. 

Definition of socialism, 14-16, 

27. 
Democratic features of socialism, 

15, 27, 107, 109, 112. 
Direct primary, 15. 



Early English Socialists, 53- 
54 n, 59, 88-89. 

Economic interpretation of his- 
tory, 43-48, 81-83. 

Engels, 2, 40. 

England, 9. 

Evolution of society, 42, 81, 90- 
91. 

Fabian socialism, 37, 76. 
Family under socialism, 20-22, 

32-33, 111. 
France, 9. 
Full product of labor, 61-63, 

85. 

General strike, 73, 89. 
Germany, 9-10. 

Government ownership, 16, 28. 
Great contradiction in the 
Marxian theory, 56-59. 

Incentive under socialism, 114- 

115, 119. 
Increasing misery, theory of, 66- 

67, 87, 93-96. 
Indictment of capitalism, 11-13. 
Inevitability of socialism, 90- 

100. 
Initiative, 15, 107. 
Interest, 61-62, 88. 
International character of the 

socialist movement, 3-4. 



*S* 



152 



INDEX 



International Workingmen's As- 
sociation, 121, 124-125. 

Labor theory of value, 48-53, 

83-84. 
Liberty under socialism, 110, 

118-119. 

Management of industry under 
socialism, 15-16, 107, 109- 
110. 

Marx, Karl, 1-3, 40. 

Marxian system, 40-70. 

Marxists, 70. 

Nihilism, 22-23, 30. 
Objections to socialism, 111-116. 

Population, difficulties under 
socialism, 115-116, 120. 

Private property under socialism, 
15, 108. 

Profits, see surplus value. 

Profit-sharing, 18, 29. 

Recall, 15, 107. 

Referendum, 15, 107. 

Religion and socialism, 20-21, 

33-34, 111. 
Rent, 62, 88. 
Revisionism, 71-72, 89. 



Scientific socialism, 1-3, 40-70, 
78-88. 

Single tax, 25, 31-32. 

Socialism, a working class move- 
ment, 41. 

Socialist Party Organization, 15, 
34. 

Socialists of the Chair, 38, 76. 

Socialist State, 106-120. 

Social Reform, 24, 31. 

State Socialists, 38, 76. 

Surplus value, theory of, 53-59, 
84, 88. 

Syndicalism, 72-74, 89. 

Taxation, confiscatory, 103. 
Trade-unionism, 121-125. 

Unemployed problem, 93-96, 

100. 
United States, socialism in, 5-8, 

10, 72. 
Utopian socialism, 2, 5, 39, 76- 

78. 

Value, labor theory of, 48-53, 

83-84. 
Voting strength of socialism 

throughout the world, 4. 

Wages under socialism, 113-114. 



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"As a readable, straightaway account of socialism it is singularly 
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Cloth, I2V10, $1.50 ?iet ; by mail, $1.62 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



SOME CRITICAL STUDIES OF SOCIALISM 



By MAX HIRSCH 

Democracy vs. Socialism 

A Critical Examination of Socialism as a Remedy for 
Social Injustice and an Exposition of the Single 
Tax Doctrine 

Mr. Hirsch offers the other side to those who would thoroughly in- 
vestigate the socialist doctrine. He analyzes the teachings of so- 
cialism; points out what he conceives to be the errors in their 
economic and ethical standpoint; exhibits the conflict between 
their industrial and distributive proposals, and the disasters toward 
which they tend. In his final section he aims to show that upon 
the success of certain social reforms depends the realization of the 
ultimate object of both individualism and socialism — the establish- 
ment of social justice. 

Cloth, 8vo, $j.2$ net; by mail, $J.jg 

The Case against Socialism 

a handbook for speakers and candidates prepared 
by the London Municipal Society 

Its prefatory letter from Arthur James Balfour says : " The 
controversy is one vital to the welfare of society ; ... no greater 
service can be rendered to the cause of ordered progress than a 
statement, at once careful and popular, of the main points in the 
dispute." 

" Every man or woman, rich or poor, at all interested in the social, 
economic, and moral welfare of the masses should read it . . . the 
very best handbook of its kind that has been issued to the public." 
— Labor World, 

Cloth, $1.50 net; by mail, $1.62 

By YVES GUYOT 

Socialistic Fallacies 

11 It is written in the crisp, clear style that is essentially French — 
the most logical of languages written by the most logical of thinkers. 
A great book . . . one of those which serve to clarify contemporary 
thought and to make what the German thinkers describe as an 
'erklarung' — a clearing-up." — The State, 

"An arsenal of facts and figures available for an anti-socialistic 
campaign." — Ecclesiastical Review, 

Cloth, $1.50 ; by mail, $1.63 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



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